Road to Ruin
by AirInThere
Summary: Sequel to Life of a Hunter After Rose and Dean pick Sam up from Stanford, crazy things start to happen to Rose. Is it true that a persons destiny can be chosen for them before they were even alive? Rose wasn't sure at first but she's coming around to it.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"You are so out of practice Sammy," Dean said. I rolled my eyes and went back into the kitchen. I was hungry and I saw a few apples on the counter. I grabbed one and headed back where the other two were. I took a huge bite out of it and noticed that Sam was now on top of Dean.

"Maybe not," Dean said, not liking the sudden leverage his younger brother had. He pushed Sam. "Get off of me."

Sam stood up and glared at us. I stood next to Dean when he got up and brushed himself off.

"What are you guys doing here?" Sam asked rudely.

"Hey Sam, how are you. We're fine, thanks for asking." I said sarcastically. Dean gave me a look and I turned to sit on the sofa chair that was nearby. Sam definitely was living in a comfortable place. It also had a woman's touch.

"We needed to talk to you," Dean said. "And if we had called, would you really have answered?"

Sam exhaled and averted his eyes from Dean. A girl came out of the bedroom in a really small Smurf's shirt and boxers. We all turned to look at her. I cleared my throat when Dean's eyes began to wander.

"What's going on?" She asked. Sam sighed.

"Guys, this is Jessica," he said. "My girlfriend. Jess, this is Dean and Rosemary."

"Wait, Dean and Rosemary, like your brother and sister?" She asked. I stood back up to stand next to Dean, surprised that he had told people about us.

"Well, uh, Rose isn't exactly our sister," Dean said, awkwardly. It was definitely strange to think of Dean as my brother.

"I thought you guys adopted her?" She asked Sam. He nodded and we followed in suit. Dean and I forgot that Sam didn't know we had been together now for more than three years. Wow, three years was a long time. Normal couples would probably be engaged at this point.

"I like the Smurfs," Dean said. I smacked the back of his head.

"Stop being a pervert. That is Sam's girlfriend," I told him. Yes, we had been together for this long and he still tried to flirt with other girls. It used to hurt but I came to terms with the fact that it was who Dean was and it's not like I don't appreciate a good looking fellow. But it was still annoying when he blatantly ogled at someone.

"Right," Dean said. "Well, we have to borrow your boyfriend here for some family business, but uh, nice meeting you."

She looked to Sam. Sam moved to stand next to her.

"No, whatever you have to say you can say in front of her." Dean and I glanced at each other and I shrugged.

"Fine, well, Dad hasn't been home in a few days." Dean said.

"So he's been working overtime. It's not the first time he hasn't been home when he said he was going to be." He said, crossing his arms. Wow, he really wasn't the Sam that we used to know. I mean, besides being a super giant now, he was kind of an asshole.

"He went on a _hunting_ trip," I told him, stressing on the 'hunting' part.

"And he hasn't been home in a few days," Dean reiterated.

Sam was quiet for a few moments. "Jess would you excuse us. We have to go outside."

...

We went out of the apartment and started heading outside.

"You can't just do this, you guys. You can't break into my apartment and expect me to drop my life to help you on some wild goose chase to find Dad." Sam said.

"You're not hearing what we're saying, are you?" Dean asked. "He's missing. We need you to help us find him."

"He's always missing," Sam said. "Do you remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the Devil's Gate? He was missing then too, he's always missing."

"Not for this long, Sam." I snapped.

"Are you coming or not?" Dean asked him, stopping and turning around.

"No," Sam said. I turned around and headed out of the building.

"I told you it was a lost cause Dean. This isn't the Sam we used to know." I called over my shoulder. I stopped at the door when I heard them still bickering.

"Why not?" Dean asked.

"Because I swore when I left that I was done with all of it. I'm done with hunting. For good."

"Come on," Dean pressed, starting to walk towards me. "Sure, it wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad."

"Are you kidding me? When I told dad I was afraid of what was in my closet he gave me a .45!"

For good reason, there had been a poltergeist in there.

"What else was he supposed to do?" Dean asked, obviously thinking the same as me. They stopped right in front of me.

"I don't know, Dean," he said sarcastically, "maybe tell me it was okay, tell me I shouldn't be afraid of the dark."

"Seriously?" I asked.

"Of course you should be afraid of the dark. You know what's out there." Dean added.

"I was nine, you guys." Sam said.

"So was I," I countered.

"Yeah, but still," wow, Sam really didn't want to come with us. "I mean, the way we grew up after mom was killed. And his stupid obsession to find what killed her."

"So?" I asked.

"It's been how long?" Sam asked. "We've never found the damn thing."

"Do you know how many lives we've saved?" Dean asked.

"Especially after you left," I added. Sam glared at me and then turned back to Dean. I made my way back to the Impala, the other two following me. I stopped listening to them and I got into the front seat of the car and left the door open so I could still hear them. Okay, so I only wanted to give the illusion that I wasn't listening to them.

"So you just wanna live some apple-pie life?" Dean asked, stopping to turn around and face him.

"No, safe." Sam said.

"That's why you left?"

"I was just going to college. Dad was the one who said that if I was going to leave to stay gone." He smiled softly, bitterly, and Dean's jaw tightened. Maybe he finally understood what a horrible idea this was. We seriously could do this without Sam. "That's what I'm doing."

"Yeah, well Dad's in real trouble right now. If he's not dead all ready. I can feel it." Dean was really good at knowing when trouble was brewing. Dean glanced back at me in the car and I sat forward. Dean looked back at Sam. "Look, we can't do this alone."

"Yes you can," Sam said. Hey, at least we agreed on something. Dean looked away.

"Yeah, well," Dean sighed and glanced at me softly, "I don't want to."

My heart dropped. He missed Sam. After all these years, after all the crap, after all the hurt and pain. He still missed Sam. Sure I went through moments when I relived the emotions of losing my best friend, but over the years Dean replaced him. Dean, besides being my boyfriend, was my best friend now. Sam lost that spot and now he was the gum under _my_ shoe.

Sam exhaled and they were silent for a moment.

"What was he hunting?" I got out of the car and leaned against the trunk as Dean made his way over, Sam following close behind. Dean opened the trunk and lifted the fake bottom where we hid all our weapons. We had organized them all a while back, which made it look more professional, at least to a freelance hunter's perspective.

Dean started looking for the paperwork we had found.

"Where is it?" He asked me.

"It's in my journal," I told him.

"So wait, why weren't you guys with dad when he left?" He asked, looking up at me and then back to Dean. Dean looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"The last we saw him was in Oregon months ago in June." I said. "We kept in touch over the phone every few days until July."

"We were just hunting our own gig down in New Orleans." Dean glanced up at me and we smirked. We had stayed an extra day and partied a little too hard. We had gotten pretty cross-fazed. Dean cleared his throat. "It was this voodoo thing."

"Dad lets you go on a hunting trips by yourself?" Sam asked, skeptical. Usually when we had split when Sam was still with us, we were only ever allowed to do research and wait for John to come back before we actually hunted the thing. But seriously, we weren't teenagers anymore.

"We're 26 and 23, dude." Dean finally pulled out the papers. "Here we go,"

I grabbed my research from him. He tried to take credit for my work a lot. He gave me a look of innocence.

"He was working a job outside Jericho, California." I said. "About a month ago this guy," I handed him the top sheet, "they had found his car on a bridge but he had vanished."

"Completely MIA." Dean added. Sam shrugged.

"So maybe he was kidnapped." Sam said. I rolled my eyes and Dean took the rest of the papers from me, laying them out one by one.

"Yeah, well there was another one in April, one in December '04, '03, '98, '89."

"Ten of them," I said. "over the past twenty years."

Dean took the papers back from Sam.

"All of them men, all on the same 5 mile stretch of road." Dean said. "Dad went to check it out three weeks ago and we haven't heard from him since."

"And if that wasn't enough," I said sarcastically. Dean sighed and pulled out his cell phone.

"We got this voice mail from him yesterday," Dean played it for him. We listened to John tell us to be very careful and everything else and the whole message was warped.

"You know there's E.V.P. on that?" Sam asked. Dean nodded.

"Not bad Sammy; kinda like riding a bike, isn't it?" He said. "We slowed the message down on Rose's computer and ran it through a Gold Wave and this is what we got."

He played the recording. It was a woman. "I can never go home."

"Never go home?" Sam asked.

"It's been more than three years," Dean said, standing up and taking a different approach. "We haven't bothered you for that long. We've never asked you for a thing."

He threw the paperwork in the trunk and looked at Sam. I bent down to slide them back into my journal. I wasn't letting the trunk turn back into a mess so soon. He sighed and nodded.

"Fine, all right. I'll go and help you find him." He gave us a look. "But I have to get back first thing on Monday. Wait here, I'll be back."

"What's on Monday?" Dean asked.

"I have a, uh, an interview." Sam said, cautiously.

"What for?" I asked.

"Like a job interview?" Dean asked. "Skip it,"

"I can't skip it. It's a law school interview and it's my whole future on a plate." Sam said, smiling a little.

"Law school?" Dean asked, skeptical. Yeah, I hadn't ever really pictured Sam as a lawyer either.

"Yeah," Sam said quickly. "So, deal or not?"

Dean rolled his eyes and waved Sam off before we got into the car. Sam went to pack a bag and to tell Jess he'd be gone for the weekend. Dean and I waited for him in the car.

"You okay with this?" Dean asked as we watched Sam go back inside. I sighed lightly and turned to look at Dean.

"You know every single thing I've thought about Sam since he left," I told him, "do you think I'm all right with this?"

"It'll be fine." Dean told me. "He doesn't want to stay, anyway. He'll be gone by Monday."

"Are we really going to find John by Monday?" I asked. Dean looked me in the eyes and I could tell he didn't really know. "And are we going to tell Sam that we're together?"

"It's none of his business." Dean said, grabbing the wheel and looking out the front window. He relaxed and then turned to look back at me. "Do you want him to know?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. He's going to be out of our lives again in a few days, so why bother?"

Dean nodded. "That's the spirit."

...

We stopped at a gas station in Jericho and Dean went inside to get something to eat while we filled the car with gas. I was sitting in the back seat, and let me tell you, I was not happy about it. I haven't had to sit in the backseat since I was in high school. Dean came out with a thing of cinnamon PopTarts for me and held up his other hand full of junk food.

"You want breakfast?" He asked Sam. Sam cringed his nose at what Dean had as he went through the box of our cassettes.

"No thanks," he said. He glanced back at him. "So how do you pay for that? You guys still running credit card scams?"

"Well, hunting isn't exactly a pro-ball career." Dean said, putting the gas nozzle back on its machine.

"All we do is apply for them, it's not our fault that they send us the cards." I added, breaking off a piece of my PopTart and putting it in my mouth. Sam rolled his eyes.

"What names did you guys put down?" He asked.

"Uh," Dean got back into the driver's seat. "Bert Aframian, his son Hector and Hector's wife Wendy."

"We got three cards out of the deal," I said. Sam laughed and nodded.

"Sounds about right," he tossed the cassettes he was holding back into the box. "You gotta update your cassette collection."

"Why?" Dean asked, a little insulted.

"Well, they're cassettes for one thing. But, Black Sabbath? Journey? Metallica? Heart? And is this really Backstreet Boys?"

"What's wrong with Heart?" I asked. Dean grabbed Metallica out of Sam's hand.

"Yeah, well it's driver's rules Sammy. Driver picks the music and shotgun shuts his cake-hole." I smirked and leaned forward so I could look between the two.

"I think I'm feeling Cheap Trick today, Dean." Dean groaned and put the Metallica tape back in and grabbed the Cheap Trick.

"Wait, Cheap Trick?" Sam asked with a smile, looking between the two of us. "Dean doesn't like Cheap Trick."

"Nope, but I do," I said, leaning back in my seat. Sam turned back to glance at me before looking back at Dean as he put in the cassette.

"So, you'll play Rose's music but you won't listen to my suggestion? I'm your brother." Sam said. Dean exhaled and twitched his nose. His usual remark would be that I'm his girlfriend, but we weren't playing that card around Sam. Plus that deal we had made in Santa Cruz was still in full effect. He still kicked himself for making that deal with me.

"Yeah, well," Dean tried to think of a reason that wasn't because I was his girlfriend and he was totally whipped. "Driver's rules. Shotgun picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole and backseat trumps all."

...

While we drove into Jericho Sam called the hospital and the morgue to see if there was anyone there who could be John but there wasn't. Up ahead there was a road block in front of a bridge and I leaned forward to look.

"Check it out," Dean said, pulling over. He reached into the glove box and pulled out our fakes, handing me mine. Sam was staring at us like we were crazy as we got out of the car.

"You guys have," Sam asked incredulously, not finishing his sentence because of all the cops around. We ignored him.

"We should be dressed more professionally than this," I muttered to Dean while Sam stumbled out of the car, still in shock, and followed after.

"No time for that," Dean said. We walked past the caution tape and looked around. There was a blue car, empty, with no body seen anywhere. This was definitely linked to everything. Dean and I exchanged looks. I heard two police officers talking about how the missing guys' girlfriend was putting up posters downtown.

"You fella's had another one just like this last month, didn't you?" Dean asked as we approached the officer.

"Who are you?" he asked. Dean and I flashed him our fakes while Sam stood off to the side not knowing what to do.

"Federal Marshals," I said. He glanced between the three of us, obviously skeptical.

"Young for Marshals, aren't you?" He asked.

"That's awfully kind of you," Dean said, smirking. I checked in the car while Sam awkwardly stood there, not knowing what to do.

"But you did have one just like this a month ago, right?" I asked. He sighed and nodded.

"Yeah, about a mile up the road." He said.

"You knew the victim?" Sam asked, finally moving from his spot. The officer nodded.

"Any connections between the victims?" Dean asked.

"Besides the fact that they were all men." I added. The officer shook his head.

"None."

"So what are your theories?" Sam asked.

"Honestly, we have no clue." The officer said. "It could be anything."

"Well, that's just the kind of crack police work that I'd expect out of you guys." Dean said. I bit my lip to keep from smiling. What a usual Winchester remark. Sam didn't think so as he stepped on Dean's foot.

"Thanks for your time," Sam said. We headed back to the car. I noticed a few FBI coming our way. Dean smacked Sam on the back of the head.

"What was that for?" Sam asked.

"Why did you step on my foot?" Dean countered.

"Why do you have to talk to the police like that?" Sam argued right back.

The FBI and a sheriff who was with them were coming closer.

"Guys, knock it off." I said.

"Come on, they don't really know what's going on." Dean said. I sighed. "We're all alone on this. I mean, if we're gonna find dad we've gotta get to the bottom of this thing ourselves."

The two headed right into the sheriff and FBI agents.

"Can I help you?" The sheriff asked. Sam looked nervous and looked away.

"No sir, we were just leaving." Dean said. We walked past and Dean muttered about the agents, calling them names as they passed.

"So what now?" Sam asked.

"I heard two police officer's saying that the missing guy's girlfriend was hanging up posters." I said. "We should find her and talk to her."

Dean started up the engine as we got in the car, me sitting in the back again. He drove around until we saw a depressed looking girl hanging up posters of the missing guy everywhere she could. Dean parked and we got out.

"Let me handle this," I told the two. Dean looked insulted.

"What?" He asked. "What do you think would happen if we tried to talk to her?"

"I think you'd end up making her feel worse and make her not want to tell us anything," I told him. Sam didn't say anything and Dean tried to defend himself. I cut him off. "Please, we've spent how much time together and you think I don't know you well enough? Give me some more credit here."

I turned around and walked up to the girl, the two following me.

"You're Troy's girlfriend, right?" I asked her as she put up another sign.

"Yeah," she said. She looked between the three of us. "Who are you?"

"We're his aunt and uncles," Dean said. I tried not to turn around and glare at him. She narrowed her eyes at us.

"He's never mentioned you before," She said.

"Yeah, well, we're not from around here." I said.

"We're in Modesto," Dean added.

"Anyway, we're looking for him too. And we're kinda asking around," Sam said, stepping up. I bit my lip and tried not to roll my eyes. What happened to leaving it to me? Dean asks for his help and all of a sudden Sam's walking around like he owns the place. I took a deep breath to calm myself. He wouldn't be here long, he'd be gone by Monday, maybe before that.

...

Her friend joined us in a diner while we asked them questions. Dean helped me into one side of the booth and he sat down quickly next to me as Sam was about to sneak in. The two girls sat in front of us and Sam got a chair to sit on the end with. Dean went to put his arm around my shoulders out of habit but left it on the back of the seat when he noticed Sam watching.

"We were talking on the phone," Troy's girlfriend, Amy, said. "He was on his way home and he said that he would call me right back but he never did."

"He didn't say anything strange?" I asked.

"Or out of the ordinary?" Sam added. She shook her head.

Dean and I glanced at each other. We probably weren't going to get much out of them. They didn't really know anything. Sam had a different approach.

"I like your necklace," He told Amy. I looked down at the pentagram around her neck.

"Thanks," she said, looking down at it. "Troy gave it to me, to freak my parents out. You know, the whole devil worshipping thing."

I almost rolled my eyes. If only they knew. Dean turned his head and ducked it down near my ear.

"I think Sammy's flirting," I rolled my eyes and rested my hand on his thigh, near his crotch. I felt him stiffen and I couldn't help but smirk. Sam was still talking about the necklace, telling the girls what it really meant. They wouldn't believe it.

"All right," Dean said, clearing his throat and leaning forward to brush my hand away from him without causing suspicion. "Look, with the way Troy disappeared, something's not right. So if you've heard anything,"

The two girls glanced at each other as Dean trailed off. I sat forward a little too.

"What is it?" I asked. Amy's friend spoke up.

"Well, it's just, with all these guys gone missing, people talk." She said.

"What do they talk about?" Sam and Dean asked at the same time. I stared at the two in horror. That was too weird.

"Well," Amy's friend continued, "it's kind of this local legend. This girl was murdered out there like, decades ago. They say she's still out there. She hitchhikes along the road and whoever picks her up disappears forever."

The three of us glanced at each other. Time for research.

...

We went to the local library and we each crowded around one of the computers. I did a search in the newspaper database for 'female murdered hitchhiking' but got no results.

"Try 'female murdered centennial highway'," Dean said. I typed that in but there was still nothing.

"Let me try," Sam said. I waved him away.

"I got it," I said. Sam rolled his eyes and pushed my rolly chair away from the computer before he took my place.

"Watch it control freak," Dean said. I scooted back over to them and resisted the very strong urge to punch Sam in the face. Dean rested his hand on my shoulder and squeezed, telling me to let it go.

"Angry spirits are born out of violent deaths right?" Sam said. I nodded.

"So, then it doesn't have to be murder." He replaced 'murder' with 'suicide' and clicked the search. I felt like kicking myself when one article popped up. I should have thought of that. We had dealt with suicides before.

"Like that school teacher from a few years ago," I said, glancing down at the two long scars on my arms. Sam glanced at them.

"Holy crap, I didn't see those." He said. I smirked.

"War wounds," I said.

"How many other scars have you gotten since I've been gone?" He asked. I tensed. Did he mean beside the huge one he left me with when he ran away? I thought back and shrugged.

"Don't really remember." I said. Sam let it go and clicked on the article.

"1981, Constance Welch, 24, jumped off the Sylvania Bridge and drowned in the river." I leaned forward to read the article.

"Does it say why she did it?" Dean asked. I nodded.

"An hour before they found her she called 911." I said. I bit my lip and sat back. "Her two little kids were taking a bath, she left them alone for a minute and when she came back they weren't breathing."

Sam read a quote and I looked at the pictures in the article.

"It's the same bridge that the guy's car was found." I said.

...

...

**Yay! I finally uploaded the beginning of the sequel! It took me way longer than I thought it was going to but I've really been trying to focus on my schoolwork first. I usually have problems delegating my time wisely and end up leaving homework for last so I'm trying to make a better effort.**

**Here's an important note: For a while I'm going to be following along with the T.V. episodes and it's going to probably be really redundant when I use basically the same lines from the show. But if you guys stick with it, I promise I break off from the show eventually. For the sake of my plot I needed a few key things to happen correlating with the show. But I promise it gets real interesting and new later on. :)**

**So please, please, please leave me a review and let me know what you think! Chapter 2 will be uploaded this weekend.**

**-Erin**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

By the time we had gotten back to the bridge it was dark. The road block was gone and somebody had towed away Troy's car. I walked over to the edge and looked down at the river. It gave me goose bumps as I thought about when we had gone after the mermaid. I moved away from the railing but stayed close to Dean as he looked over.

"So this is where Constance took the swan dive." He said. Sam looked over and then glanced at Dean.

"You think Dad would have been here?" He asked. Dean shrugged and started walking back to the Impala. He rested his hand on the small of my back as he led me with him.

"Well, he was chasing the same story and we're chasing him." Sam turned to face us, watching us walk away.

"So now what?" Sam asked.

"Now," I said, "we keep digging until we find something that tells us what we're dealing with here."

"It might take a while," Dean said.

"A while?" Sam asked incredulously. "I don't have a while. I have to be back,"

"By Monday," Dean interrupted, turning back around to face him. I stayed back, watching the two. I had a feeling they'd start a fight. I hated to admit that I had kind of been looking forward to it. "Right, the interview. You're really serious about this, aren't you?"

I didn't get why Dean was pushing the topic of the interview so hard. I sighed and looked away. Maybe I hadn't been looking forward to this fight.

"You think you can just be some lawyer? Marry your girl?" I winced a little when Dean said that. I had kinda hoped one day we'd be able to get married. Nothing fancy, just a little detour if we were ever near Reno or Vegas. Hell, a drive-thru elopement would do perfectly. It would incorporate the Impala, too. Wouldn't Dean get a kick out of that?

"Yeah, maybe," Sam said.

"Does Jess know the truth about you Sam?" Dean asked. "Does she know some of the things you've done? Does she know what Rose, Dad and I do for a living?"

"No and she's not ever going to know." He said, taking a step forward. Dean nodded.

"Well, that's healthy." He said sarcastically. "You can pretend all you want Sammy, but sooner or later you're gonna have to face up to who you really are."

Dean turned back around and we started walking back to the car again. Sam wasn't done.

"And who's that?" Sam asked, following after us.

"One of us," Dean said with a smirk. Sam walked in front of us and we stopped.

"No," he said. "I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life."

I scoffed and glared at Sam. "You know, I've never felt more horrible about myself than right now and when you left."

I took a step back.

"Maybe you should just go back to Stanford now. Call your amazingly normal, safe girlfriend and have her pick you up." I turned away from him to face Dean. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently. He looked softly down at me. "We don't need him Dean. We haven't needed him for years and we certainly don't need him now."

He shook his head. "No," he looked up at Sam. "You have a responsibility."

"To dad?" Sam asked, ignoring what I had said. "And his crusade? If it weren't for pictures I wouldn't even know what mom looks like."

I could tell Dean was getting really upset. I backed away from them.

"And what difference does it make?" Sam asked, trying to be empathetic. "Even if we do find the thing that killed her, mom's gone. She's never coming back."

He didn't know what it felt like. He had never known his mom. Dean grabbed him by his jacket and pushed him up against the bridge. His jaw and neck were tense and he was trying not to hurt Sam. I looked down the length of the bridge and my eyes opened wide at what I saw.

"Don't talk about her like that," Dean said. He let him go and turned towards me. "Let's go,"

I shook my head and pointed behind him. They turned and saw Constance, standing on the edge of the bridge. She turned to look at us before she fell off the side. Sam and Dean ran forward to look over the edge.

"Where'd she go?" Dean asked. Sam shrugged and I quickly turned when I heard the Impala start up. The lights turned on.

"What the," Dean said. I sighed in exasperation and knew it had to be the spirit.

"Who's driving your car?" Sam asked. Dean didn't say anything but he pulled out his keys out of his pocket. It started speeding towards us and we took off.

"Come on!" I yelled, diving off the side but catching on to the railing. Sam and Dean followed after and Sam held on to the side as well but when I looked to my other side Dean wasn't there. I looked down at the river below.

"Dean!" I called.

"Dean!" Sam yelled after. I saw a body walking out of the river onto the bank and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it was Dean. I started climbing back over.

"What?" Dean yelled up. I laughed when I saw him caked with mud.

"Are you all right?" Sam asked. Dean gave us the okay sign.

"I'm super." I ran to the end of the bridge and started climbing down to where Dean was. He just stood up and I ran into him, wrapping my arms around his waist. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around me. "It's okay, I'm fine." He murmured, kissing the top of my head.

It was dark out so I wasn't worried if Sam saw or not. Plus he was checking out the car.

"Hold onto the side next time," I said as I pulled away and crinkled my nose in disgust when I finally registered how horrible he smelled. I groaned as I looked down at the river mess all over my favorite sweatshirt. I was just glad that Dean hadn't been wearing his leather jacket, it would have been ruined.

Dean and I went back up to the bridge and saw Sam waiting by the Impala.

"The car's all right," he said when we stopped. Dean checked under the hood and nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, whatever she did to it, it seems all right now." He said, turning around to where the spirit had been. "That Constance chick, what a bitch!"

"Well, she doesn't want us digging around, that's for sure." Sam said. I rolled my eyes and scoffed.

"Do they ever?" I asked sarcastically. Dean and Sam sat against the hood of the car and Sam couldn't help but crinkle his nose. He turned to Dean.

"You smell like a toilet," he told him. I laughed as I took off my sweatshirt and pulled out a new one from my duffel.

"Time to check into a motel," I said, getting into the front seat, not caring how tall Sam was. He could suffer in the back for a little while.

...

Dean handed the motel manager his credit card and the man looked at it.

"You guys having a reunion or something?" He asked. Dean and I glanced at each other.

"Why?" I asked.

"That other guy, Burt Aframian, he came in and bought out a room for a whole month." He said. We all exchanged another glance.

We got our room and then we went to break into John's room. Dean and Sam stood watch while I picked the lock. It was always my specialty. I got it open and Sam followed me in, grabbing Dean and pulling him in.

"Holy crap," I said, looking around. John had posted up all kinds of weird articles and pictures, all over the walls. It looked like it had been lived in a little too much. Dean turned on a light while Sam closed the door.

Dean found a half-eaten burger near the lamp and picked it up to smell it. I smacked the back of his head.

"No," I told him sternly, sounding like I was lecturing a dog. He dropped it and turned around to look at the room. There were lines of salt everywhere and other charms and things used for protection.

"Salt," Sam said, looking up at us, "cats eyes. Dad was worried."

"He was trying to keep something from coming in," I agreed. Dean started reading some of the stuff that was on the walls.

"What do you got here?" Sam asked, moving behind him.

"The Centennial Highway victims." Dean said. "I don't get it. They were all completely different men."

I was looking at the stuff John had taped to the opposite wall. Sam glanced over and walked closer to see what I was looking at. He was standing just a little too close but I tried to not move away.

"So what do they have in common?" I asked. Sam looked to the wall to the left and walked closer.

"Dad figured it out." He said. Dean and I both turned to look at him. "He found the same article about Constance. She's a woman in white."

It hit me like a ton of bricks. Of course she was a woman in white. I should have noticed what she was wearing when she jumped off the bridge the other night, but it had happened too quickly and with Dean and Sam arguing and then the car there was a lot of other stuff on my mind.

"You sly dogs," Dean said looking at the wall of victims.

"If John had figured out she was a woman in white he would have burned her corpse." I said.

"She might have another weakness." Sam said.

"Dad would want to make sure." Dean said, walking over to Sam and reading the article. "Does it say where she was buried?"

"No," Sam said.

"Well," I said, "We should talk to her husband."

"If he's still alive," Sam said. "It's what Dad would do."

Dean nodded. "All right, why don't you see if you can find an address. I'm gonna go get cleaned up."

I sighed in relief. He really was starting to reek to the point where it was hard to be around him. I loved him, but I couldn't stand that smell. I missed his usual smell of leather, cologne and nutmeg.

"Hey Dean," Sam said. "I'm sorry about what I said, about mom and dad."

Dean held his hand up and shook his head. "No chick flick moments."

Sam chuckled but nodded. "All right. Jerk."

"Bitch," Dean said. I almost smiled. They were acting like normal. Dean went into the bathroom and I kept looking around the room to see if maybe John had any more clues or the husband's address.

Sam walked over to where Dean had been and picked something off the wall. I turned to him.

"What did you find?" I asked. He turned and held up an old photo of the three Winchesters, before they had taken me in. I smiled softly and turned back to the wall.

"You know," he said. I kept my back to him, not really wanting to talk to him about anything other than this case. I had definitely learned how to build walls like Dean. "I should really apologize to you too."

"I'm not really into chick flick moments either," I told him, hoping he'd drop the subject. He scoffed.

"Since when?" He asked. "You're the one who always wanted to go to prom and be more involved in the places we stayed."

"Yeah, well, that was a long time ago." I told him. "I'm a lot different now."

"No, you're completely different." He said. I turned to him finally. He was staring at me like I had three heads. "What happened to you?"

I laughed bitterly. "Really? You really want to get into this?"

"Yeah. I do." He said, nodding. He put his hands into his pockets. "Tell me."

I stared at him, trying to see if he was serious. Luckily Dean came out of the bathroom, all cleaned and in new clothes.

"Hey, I'm starving. I'm gonna go get something at the diner across the street." He said, grabbing his jacket. "You guys want anything?"

I shook my head and Sam declined as he pulled out his cell phone. Probably to check his messages. Dean left and I sat down on the bed, still looking around.

My cell beeped and I pulled it out and answered it.

"What's up?" I asked.

"5-0," Dean said. My heart jumped as I peeked out of the curtains to see if he was joking. He wasn't. It was the same cops from the bridge. "Get out of there."

I motioned Sam to look out the window.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"They all ready saw me." He said.

"Dean," I said quietly. We were definitely in trouble.

"I'll be fine. Just, you and Sam get out of there and find the husband." He hung up and I saw the officer stop Dean to talk. I quickly looked around the room and found a piece of paper with an address marked on it. I quickly grabbed it.

"We have to get out of here," I said. I rushed through the back of the motel and saw a window in the bathroom. I opened it and crawled out, Sam following soon after. We ran like hell away from the motel and didn't stop until we were both completely out of breath.

"What do we do now?" Sam asked, bending over to catch his breath. I pulled out the paper I had grabbed.

"We go visit Constance's husband." I said.

...

Sam knocked on the door and I couldn't help but worry about Dean. I couldn't believe he had gotten caught that easily. We hadn't ever had trouble with cops before and I had to keep myself from blaming Sam. It wasn't his fault. Something was telling me that there was a lot more to John's disappearance than we had originally thought.

An old man opened the door and looked at us through the screen.

"Are you Joseph Welch?" I asked. He nodded.

"Can we ask you some questions?" Sam asked. He pulled out the old picture and showed it to him. "Has this man come to talk to you?"

Joe led us through his yard as he looked at the picture.

"Yeah, he came to talk to me four days ago. He said he was a reporter." He handed the picture back to Sam.

"That's right, we're working on a story together," Sam said.

"I don't know what kind of story you lot are working on, especially with the questions he was asking." Joe said.

"Did he ask you questions about your wife, Constance?" I asked.

"Yeah, he asked me where she was buried." He said.

"Right, and where was that?" Sam asked. I rolled my eyes. Stupid idiot.

"You're gonna make me go through this again?"

"It's just fact checking." I told him.

"On the plot of land we owned, where we used to live." he said.

"Why did you move?" Sam asked.

"I wasn't going to live in the same house my children died in."

"Did you ever get remarried?" I asked him. He shook his head.

"No way, Constance was the love of my life." I smiled when he said that, even though he had been lying.

"I bet you guys had a really happy marriage." I said. Joe paused but then nodded.

"Yeah," he said.

"Well, that should be all," Sam said, "thanks for your time."

We headed back to the Impala. We had gone back to the motel after making sure all the cops were gone, thankful that Dean had left me the car keys before he went to the diner.

"One more thing," Sam said, turning around. "Have you ever heard of a woman in white?"

Joe shook his head.

"They also go by a weeping woman," I said. "It's a ghost story."

"Well," Sam chuckled, walking back towards Joe. I stayed by the car. "It's more of a phenomenon really. They're spirits. They've been sighted for centuries all over the world. These are all different woman but they all share the same story."

I walked up behind Sam.

"I don't care much for your story," Joe said, turning back around to his house.

"When they were alive their husbands were unfaithful to them," I said. "These woman would go temporarily insane and murder their children."

Joe turned around and stared at us in horror.

"When they realized what they had done, they'd take their own lives." Sam said. "So now their spirits were cursed. They'd roam the back roads and waterways. If they found an unfaithful man, they'd kill him."

"They'd never see him again." I added.

"You think this has something to do with Constance?" Joe asked, his lips trembling.

"You tell us," I said. He glared at us.

"I may have done some stupid things in the past, but Constance would never have killed her own children." He said. "Now get out of here."

I grabbed Sam's arm. "Come on,"

Joe turned around and went back inside his house and Sam and I got back in the Impala.

"Now what?" Sam asked, starting the car. I pulled out my phone and dialed 9-1-1.

"911, how may I direct your call?" The operator asked.

"I need the police," I said, making my voice tremble. I looked up at the street we just passed. "I heard gun shots on Whiteford Rd."

"What's your name ma'am?" Sam glanced at me with a smirk, realizing what I was doing.

"Oh, my name?" I asked. I hung up the phone and laughed as I put it in my pocket. "Hopefully that'll give Dean enough time to sneak out."

A few minutes later Sam's phone rang. He answered it and I knew it was Dean. I was glad he got out, but I wondered how deep of shit we were in.

"Tell me about it," Sam chuckled at whatever Dean had said. "It was Rose's doing. I am going to be a lawyer."

I rolled my eyes.

"So Constance's husband was cheating on her and we are dealing with a woman in white." He said. "She was buried behind her old house, I just can't figure out why dad didn't burn her corpse all ready."

Dean said something and Sam got really serious.

"What?" I asked. Sam glanced at me.

"Dad never goes anywhere without that thing." Dean said something else and they continued to talk. I didn't understand what they were talking about but I knew it was definitely bad. I looked away from Sam and out the front window. "Why would he skip out of town before he finished a job?"

Something flickered up ahead on the road.

"Sam," I said.

"What the hell is going on?" It was Constance.

"Sam!" I yelled. We went through her and Sam quickly slammed on the brakes.

I looked all around but didn't see her. My door opened on its own and a strong force threw me out of the car.

"Rose!" Sam yelled, unbuckling his seat belt as the door slammed shut again. I sat up and saw Constance in the back seat. I stood up and tried to open the door but she locked them all.

"Take me home," I heard her say. Sam tried to unlock the doors but they wouldn't.

"No," He said.

"Take me home." She demanded. The car lurched forward and drove off with Sam stuck inside.

"Sam!" I yelled after. I started to run after them but they were going too fast and I couldn't keep up. I knew where they were headed and kept running towards Constance's old home. My phone started ringing and I pulled it out to answer while I kept running.

"Yeah?" I answered, out of breath.

"What's going on?" Dean asked. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I panted, "Constance showed up in the car, threw me out, took Sam."

"What?" Dean asked. I couldn't stop to explain in detail.

"Constance took Sam." I yelled.

"Where are they going?" He asked. I gave him the address and quickly hung up as I continued running as fast as I could. I shouldn't have given up running in my free time, but since Dean and I had been on our own we didn't really have much free time.

I finally made it to her old house and saw the Impala parked and the engine was off. I bent over, wheezing and trying to catch my breath. I looked up and saw Sam in the driver's seat still, with Constance climbing over him. She was trying to make him unfaithful so she could kill him. I started going over to the car to help him out but I realized my Smith and Wesson _was_ in the car and I stopped.

Dean showed up out of nowhere and he held up his hand to tell me to stay where I was. I nodded and bent back over, keeping my head up to watch. He was holding a holster and he pulled out a gun from it. Constance disappeared and then a second later Sam was screaming in pain.

"Dean," I said. He started shooting as soon as Constance appeared on top of Sam again. The car started up and I heard Sam say something before he drove the car into the house.

"Sam!" I yelled, running in after him. Dean pulled me behind him and I obliged seeing as he had the gun.

"Sam," Dean called. I looked around for Constance but didn't see her. While Dean helped Sam out of the car I saw Constance appear and pick up a picture of her family. She turned to look at me and I felt myself get pushed into a closet that was behind me. The door slammed and I was enveloped in darkness.

"Rose!" Dean yelled. I heard something heavy scrape across the floor but I was starting to feel dizzy. I was remembering when I had been locked in the storage box in Chicago. I tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge and my throat started to constrict. I was getting nauseous and dizzy. I banged on the door.

"Dean!" I cried. "Dean, get me out of here!"

"Stay calm Rose, it's okay!" He called. I couldn't stay calm. It felt like the walls were closing in on me. I heard children speak something and then Constance was screaming.

"Dean!" I yelled. Light was flickering under the door and I banged harder. I could see black spots invade the little vision I had from the lights seeping in and I collapsed on the floor as the sound of screaming died away.

...

"Rosie," I heard Dean say urgently, "Rose, wake up."

"What's wrong with her?" Sam asked. "Since when is she claustrophobic?"

"Long story," I murmured. I opened my eyes and saw that Dean was holding me on the floor. I must have passed out. Dean wrapped his arms tightly around me and kissed the top of my head.

"You're okay," he said softly. "I promised you I'd take care of you."

"I know," I whispered, wrapping my arms around his and burying my face in his neck. "I know."

Dean laid me in the back of the car as Sam got into the front. He checked to make sure Sam wasn't looking and he leaned down to kiss my lips softly before pulling away.

"Just try to get some sleep, okay? I'll put on Journey for you." He said. Journey helped me sleep. He took off his leather jacket and put it over me and I closed my eyes as he shut the door.

"Just be glad you didn't ruin my car, Sammy," Dean said. "I would have killed you."

Sam laughed and I fell asleep as Dean backed out of the house.

I woke up a little while later and we were still driving. I stayed lying down when I realized they were talking. Yes, I still liked to eavesdrop.

"He went to Blackwater Ridge." Sam said.

"Sounds charming." Dean said. I heard the Journey cassette stop and listened as Dean took it out and flipped it onto the other side. I smiled at that. Even though he thought I was still sleeping he kept Journey playing. I really loved him and I felt deliriously happy knowing how much he loved me too. "How far?"

"About 600 miles," Sam said.

"If we shag ass we could make it there by morning," Dean said. It was quiet.

"I can't," Sam said awkwardly. "I've got my,"

"Right, your interview. I forgot about that." Dean sighed. "You could skip it, stay with us."

"I can't, it's in ten hours and I have to be back." One of them exhaled loudly.

"Sure, of course," Dean said. It was quiet again and I closed my eyes to go back to sleep.

"What's going on with Rose?" He asked. I opened my eyes again. I was definitely staying up for this.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked protectively.

"She's completely different." Sam said. "She's a complete hard-ass now who's got scars all over her and she's claustrophobic. What happened to her?"

"You left, Sammy," Dean said.

"That doesn't mean I stopped caring for her, for you guys." Dean chuckled sarcastically.

"You sure had a funny way of showing it."

"But seriously," Sam continued. "What was so horrible that made Rose change?"

"Truthfully, she's only been like this since we picked you up," Dean said finally.

"So, what? Does she hate me now?" He asked. My throat started to constrict a little. Did I hate him? He definitely wasn't my favorite person in the world like he used to be, but I didn't know if my feelings for him ran so far to be described as hate.

"Like I said, you left, Sam." Dean said. He paused and turned up the stereo a little bit. He did it so that I wouldn't wake up because of them, but I could still hear them. "Dad left us right after you did. It was just the two of us for a while. We didn't know if Dad was coming back and we had no clue where you went."

"I went to Stanford, you did know that." Sam said defensively.

"You were her best friend and you walked away from her." Dean told him. "We know why you did it, but it didn't stop from hurting. She called you at least once a week for at least a year, that I know of, and you never answered. You know that you were the only one she could really open up to."

"I didn't know," Sam said. "So I guess you replaced me then."

"You could say that, I guess," Dean said after a beat. "But, whatever. I'll take you home."

I stayed awake for the rest of the drive. They didn't talk anymore and we all just let Journey fill our minds. The car finally stopped and I guessed that meant we were at his apartment. I sat up and saw Dean glance at me in the rearview mirror. Sam jumped when he noticed me.

"When did you wake up?" He asked. I shrugged.

"Just now," I lied. I looked out the window. "Guess you're leaving."

He nodded and got out of the car, grabbing his bag. He shut the door and leaned down into the open window.

"Call me when you find him?" Sam said. Dean nodded. "And uh, maybe we can meet up sometime."

"Yeah," Dean said. Sam nodded and started walking up to the apartment. I climbed over the seat and plopped down next to Dean. "Don't ruin my seats."

I rolled my eyes and looked over at Sam. Dean leaned forward.

"Hey, Sam," He turned around. "You know, we made one hell of a team back there."

Sam just nodded. I sighed and turned to Dean.

"Let's just go." I said. I looked back at Sam and saw that he had heard me. I felt a little guilty, but I didn't let it show. Dean nodded and drove away.

We got about a block away and Dean stopped at a stop sign. I couldn't help but feel like something was way off.

"Hey Rose," Dean said. I turned to look at him and I saw that he could feel it too.

"Go back," I told him. He nodded and quickly pulled a u-turn and sped back down the street. I jumped out of the car before he could turn the engine off and I was running up to Sam's apartment.

Dean was right behind me and I tried to open the door. Dean moved me aside and rammed his shoulder into the door twice before it finally broke open.

"Jess!" Sam yelled from his bedroom. I could see him lying on his back staring up at the ceiling in horror.

"Sam!" I yelled. Dean ran in and looked up at the ceiling. I looked up too and saw Jess's dead body stuck as flames enveloped her body and the rest of the roof. Dean grabbed Sam and we pulled him out of the apartment.

I called the fire department and watched as Dean held Sam back from trying to go back inside. His look of heartbreak and anguish broke my own heart and I couldn't help but imagine what it would feel like if it had been Dean.

And that was how their mother had died, too.

Once the fire trucks showed up, Sam stopped fighting against Dean and he started rummaging through the trunk, messing with things. Dean came over to me as I watched the firemen put out the fire.

I grabbed his hand and squeezed tightly. Dean looked down at me and gave me a small smile, trying to be comforting. It wasn't me who needed to be comforted. We looked back at Sam and I let go of Dean and walked over. Sam was holding the sawed-off we had gotten for Dean all those years ago and he dropped it back in place.

He looked up at the two of us and all I saw on his face was revenge. When he opened his mouth to talk I knew it was true.

"We've got work to do."

**...**

**...**

**Here's the second chapter! I hope you guys liked it. I'm sorry that it took me a week longer to update than I had said. After I finish with school work I get so crazy side-tracked. So I'm gonna upload the third chapter right after this one comes up, I promise. Please, please review! I'll love ya forever if you do!**

**-Erin**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**September 14**

**Palo Alto, California**

Dean and I watched from the car as Sam attended Jess's funeral. We hadn't known her and Sam told us that he wanted to go alone, which was understandable. We sat on the hood and watched as her casket was lowered into the ground.

I squinted up at the sun.

"It seems kind of sacrilegious, don't you think?" I asked Dean. He glanced at me. I took my sunglasses out of my backpack and put them on.

"What does?" He asked. I shrugged.

"The sun being out. Aren't funerals always grey with a chance of rain clouds over your head?" Dean shrugged too. I sighed and watched Sam.

"He's going to want to go after the demon that did this," I told him. Dean nodded.

"Yeah, I figured as much." I turned to Dean.

"What are we gonna do?" He shook his head and looked at me.

"There's nothing we can do. He's got to sort through all this himself. He doesn't want our help." Dean said. I exhaled and nodded. All the other people had left but Sam was still sitting in the same place holding the flowers he had spent over 40 minutes picking out.

"He blames himself," I said. Dean narrowed his eyes at me.

"How do you know that?" I scoffed.

"Did you not listen to him at all? He wasn't ever going to tell Jess about any of it and he was done with it all." Dean shook his head, not understanding. "He thinks it's his fault because of who he is. He thought that he could put it all behind him, but it all came back and killed his girlfriend."

"And you know all this for sure?" Dean asked.

"Of course I do." I said. "Just because I don't know this new Sam it doesn't mean that he doesn't have the Sam that I know so well still inside."

"This is crossing the boundaries into chick flick moment very quickly," Dean said. I smiled softly and nudged my shoulder with his.

"Please, I'm your girlfriend. You all ready told me you don't mind chick flick moments with me."

"Yeah, well, Sammy's here now so it's gonna get uncomfortable very quickly." I sighed and nodded before looking away. He glanced at me. "I don't think I've told you lately that I love you."

I smiled and looked back up at him.

"That was very C.F.M. of you," I said. He cringed slightly and nodded. "I love you too."

I was about to kiss Dean when I noticed Sam wasn't by her grave anymore. I turned to look around and saw him walking towards us. He ignored us and walked right by, getting into the back seat and shutting the door behind him, waiting for us. Dean and I glanced at each other before getting into the car as well.

It was off to John's coordinates: 35, -111.

...

**September 20**

**Blackwater Ridge**

**Lost Creek, Colorado**

Sam was sleeping in the backseat and I kept looking back to check on him. Every time he'd fall asleep he'd wake up from a nightmare. He was constantly fidgeting in his sleep.

"Leave him alone," Dean said. I sighed and sat forward in my seat, playing with my hands. "I thought you didn't care for Sam like you used to."

"Doesn't mean I don't still care a little," I told him. He grabbed my hand with his right hand and squeezed gently. "Nothing feels right anymore."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked. I checked in the rearview mirror to see if Sam was still sleeping. He was.

"I don't know. This is going to all sound horrible." I shook my head and looked away. "Never mind."

Dean glanced at me and turned up the music a little louder just in case Sam wasn't sleeping. He lowered his voice but I could still hear him.

"Come on, tell me." He gave me a look. "It's my job to keep you safe and happy but I can't do that if you don't talk to me."

"It's just," I looked back at Sam again. "It shouldn't be like this. It should be you, me and sometimes your dad. Sam should be at college still, with his girlfriend."

"That doesn't sound horrible." Dean said softly.

"It kinda sounds to me like I don't want Sam here," I said, finally looking at Dean.

"Do you not want him here?" Dean asked.

"Not like this." I admitted. "I want him to be here because he wants to be, not because he just lost any chance he might have had at a normal life."

Sam jerked awake before Dean could say anything and I looked back at him as I pulled my hand out of Dean's grasp. Sam was rubbing his face and he looked pale and scared. He had had another nightmare.

"You okay?" Dean asked. Sam nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Did you have another nightmare?" I asked. Sam cleared his throat and we dropped the subject. It was silent for a moment.

"Do you want to drive?" Dean asked Sam. I turned to Dean in horror.

"What?" I asked.

"Dean, in our whole lives, you've never once asked me that." Sam said.

"You've never let me drive!" I accused.

"You used to drive all the time." Dean argued. I shook my head.

"I only drove when you were too busy hung over in bed with some slut and I needed to get out of the room." I told him, glaring. Dean's jaw tensed.

Sam was looking between the two of us like we were insane. We probably were.

"I just thought he might like to, that's all."

"Last time Sam drove he drove the Impala into a house," I muttered, crossing my arms and pouting out the window.

"You guys are like an old married couple, you do realize that, right?" Sam asked. Dean and I chuckled awkwardly. He sighed and looked at Dean. "Look, you're worried about me, I get that. But I'm fine, all right?"

Dean and I nodded, obviously not believing him for a second. Sam rolled his eyes before leaning forward and grabbing the map, looking at it.

"So where are we?" He asked.

"Just outside of Grand Junction." I said. Sam nodded.

"Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon," he said. Dean and I glanced at each other again.

"Sam," I said, turning around to face him. "We looked everywhere. We dug around there for a week and we didn't find anything."

"If we want to find the thing that killed Jessica," Dean said.

"We have to find dad first," Sam finished. We'd had this conversation over a million times since we left. I understood Sam's frustration, but he had to understand ours too.

"He'll know what to do." I added. Sam nodded.

"It's a little weird, these coordinates that dad left for us." Sam said, looking at the map again. "Blackwater Ridge. There's nothing there."

"There's a forest," I said. "There are lots of things there."

"Why is he sending us in the middle of nowhere?" Sam asked. I shrugged.

"It really wouldn't be the first time we were stuck out in the middle of nowhere," Dean said. I laughed, remembering some of the places we had gone.

"Like the faeries," I said. Sam stared at me, glancing between the two of us.

"Faeries?" He asked skeptically. We nodded. "Like, honest to god faeries?"

"That's what Dean had said too," I remarked.

...

We parked at a Ranger Station near the Lost Creek Trail and went in. We started looking around.

"The Ranger Station at the Grand Canyon was cooler," I said, looking at all the pictures on the wall. "They had stuffed animals. I should have gotten that coyote, damnit."

"What would you have done with it?" Dean asked.

"Snuggled with it," I told him, smirking. He mock-glared at me.

"There are abandoned silver and gold mines all over this place," Sam said looking at a small scale of the National Park.

"Check out this bear," Dean said looking at one of the pictures. "It's huge!"

"Lots of grizzly sightings here," I said. I looked around. "I wonder if they sell teddy bears,"

I saw a ranger come out from his back office and he regarded us.

"You lot ain't looking to go out to Blackwater Ridge, are ya?" He asked. I looked back at them and saw Dean searching for something to say.

"Actually we're environmental studies majors from U.C. Boulder." Sam said, smiling slightly. "We're just working on a paper."

"Recycle man!" Dean said. I rolled my eyes and turned back to the ranger with a look of apology on my face.

"Bull," he said. "You're friends of that Haley girl, right?"

I stepped up, "You caught us."

"Yeah, we are," Dean quickly looked at his name tag, "Ranger Wilkinson."

"Well I'll tell you the same thing I told her," he told us. "Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater till the 24th."

"I guess he's not really missing then," I muttered. Dean glanced at me with narrow eyes. The ranger nodded at me.

"Tell that girl to quit worrying. I'm sure he'll be fine." Ranger Wilkinson said. We nodded.

"You know what would help," Dean said, "if we could get a copy of the permit so that Haley could see her brother's return date."

...

We left as soon as we got the copy and I grabbed it out of Dean's hands to look at it.

"You looking for a hook-up or something?" Sam asked Dean. I tried to bite back a glare, but I managed to give Dean a look. He shook his head at me.

"Why?" Dean asked him.

"The coordinates are for Blackwater Ridge. Why are we screwing around? Let's just go find dad." Sam said, obviously annoyed. We got to the Impala and Sam stole the front seat before I could nab it so I took the seat behind Dean. Dean and I were looking over the car at Sam. "Why are we even going to talk to this girl?"

"So that we know what we're getting into before we actually get into it." Dean said.

"Seriously, we have no clue what we're dealing with here," I said. "We could find ourselves in deep shit without a way to get out. I'd rather have more information before walking into my funeral unknowingly, thanks."

Dean was shaking his head at Sam.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Since when are you shoot first ask questions later?" Dean asked him. Sam tensed.

"Since now," he said, getting into the car. Dean glanced at me with an amused look on his face.

"Oh, really," he said. I shrugged and we got into the car and headed to Haley's.

...

I knocked on the door and a girl around our age answered the door.

"Haley Collins?" Dean asked. She nodded. "I'm Dean and this is Sam and Rose. We're rangers, Ranger Wilkinson sent us over to ask some questions about your brother Tommy."

She stared at us and I fingered my fake Ranger badge in my pocket, knowing that she would ask to see them. Sam needed his own set of fakes soon.

"Let me see your I.D." she said. Dean and I nodded and held our badges against the screen. She stared at them for a while and for a split second I thought she was going to call us out on being fakes. Instead she nodded and opened the screen for us. She saw Dean's car parked on the street.

"That yours?" She asked, looking at Dean. I narrowed my eyes at her. I could tell this was going to take a lot of effort on my part to keep our relationship from Sam. We would have told him by now, since he was with us for good again, but he had just lost his girlfriend. I didn't want to be in his face about our relationship.

Dean nodded with a quick glance back at the car and at me. He could see how not amused I was and he just followed Haley into her house with his head down a little. I almost smiled. He looked like he was a toddler who had just gotten caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

We followed her into the dining room. Her little brother was sitting at the table and she was bringing dishes in from the adjoining kitchen and setting them on the table.

"So how do you know that he's missing if he's not due back for a couple days?" Sam asked.

"He had been checking in every day, with a video from his cell phone or text messages. We haven't heard anything in three days." She said.

"Maybe he lost cell reception," Sam said. Why did it sound like he was trying to mock her?

"He has a satellite phone." She said. Dean glanced at Sam.

"Could it be he's just having so much fun he's forgotten to check in?" Dean asked. The boy at the table spoke up.

"He wouldn't do that," he said, looking at Dean and then at me. I smiled and nodded.

"I believe you," I told him. Dean narrowed his eyes at me and I gave him a look.

"Our parents are gone," Haley said. "It's just my two brothers and me. We all keep close tabs on each other."

I bit my lip.

"Can we see the pictures and videos that he sent you?" I asked. She nodded and led us over to her computer. She showed us one picture.

"That's him," she said before playing the last video she got. We all watched, but I could have sworn there was something that happened behind him in the video. It was just too quick to tell without slowing it down.

"Well, we're headed to Blackwater Ridge first thing. If your brother is still out there, we'll find him." Dean said.

"Maybe I'll see you there," she said. We all glanced at each other, collectively thinking the same thought: Oh shit. "Look, I can't just sit here. I hired a guy and he's taking me out to find Tommy myself."

"Can you forward these to me?" Sam asked her, motioning to the video. He had seen what I saw. She shrugged and nodded.

...

We ended up at a bar for a drink later that night.

"What do you guys want?" I asked as Sam took out his laptop. They both told me the drinks they wanted and I went up to the crowded bar to get them.

The bartender passed me a couple times without noticing me.

"Do you need help?" I turned to my side and saw some weird older man leering at me. I shook my head.

"I'm fine, thanks." I said, motioning for the bartender.

"He's not gonna see you," he said. I raised an eyebrow at him and continued to ignore him. I leaned forward on the bar and held out my money and the bartender quickly came over, glancing down at my cleavage. Whatever helped to get a drink.

"Three beers please, on tap." I handed him my money and he quickly filled three large glasses full of beer.

"I guess you didn't need my help," the guy said. "But maybe you'll let me carry your drink."

I turned to him, holding all three glasses. He had stood up and I could see that he towered over me.

"Look, Lurch," I said, getting a little angry. "I don't need your help. I'm an independent woman who does things for herself. I'm also an independent woman traveling with my two brothers who won't hesitate to kick your ass if they see you bothering me."

"Please," he laughed. "Your brothers couldn't hurt me."

"No," Dean said from behind me, "but she could definitely make you bleed where you don't want to be bleeding."

The man regarded Dean standing behind me and then glanced at me before turning back to the bar. I rolled my eyes and turned back to Dean with an appreciative smile.

"Thanks," I said softly. He smiled back and grabbed two beers out of my hands.

"Well, I'm supposed to save you, aren't I?" He asked as we walked back over to Sam. I sat down and started drinking, not realizing how thirsty I had been for beer until I started to drink it. I set my glass down and it was all ready half empty. Sam and Dean stared at me like I grew an extra head.

"What?" I asked. I picked up the paperwork that Sam had gotten. Every 23 years hikers go missing from Blackwater Ridge because of a supposed grizzly bear.

"Every 23 years?" I muttered. "That sounds familiar."

I leaned down and pulled my journal out of my backpack and started flipping through it.

"Take a look at this," Sam said, turning his laptop around so Dean and I could see. He flipped through different frames of the video and I saw a shadow move across the tent behind Tommy.

"That's three frames," I said. Sam nodded.

"It's a fraction of a second," he said. "Whatever it is, it can definitely move."

"I told you something weird was going on here." Dean said.

"Just one more thing," Sam said, picking up some paperwork. "There was one survivor. He had been just a boy when it happened."

I chugged down the rest of my beer and stood up, putting my journal back in my backpack.

"Why are we still here?" I asked. Dean chuckled and shook his head at me, standing up as well as Sam.

"You just chugged that whole beer and you want to go out investigating," Dean said, leading me out of the bar.

"So?" I asked, stumbling for a second. I cursed myself. "I'm tipsy." I said, pouting.

"Is this a bad thing?" Sam asked. He'd never had the experience to see me truly tipsy. Dean laughed and shook his head.

"No, just extremely entertaining." He helped me into the car and we drove off to find the only survivor of the supposed grizzly attacks.

...

"You should probably wait in the car," Dean told me as he parked outside the guys house. I frowned and stuck out my bottom lip.

"Why?" I asked.

"You won't realize this until you stand up, but you're the worst beer lightweight I've ever known." He said. "You are drunk, Rose, and I'm pretty sure we won't be convincing rangers if you come with us."

"Slut," I said, falling back against the seat with my arms crossed. Dean rolled his eyes.

"Drunk," he called me, closing the door. He and Sam went up to the man's house and knocked. I watched as Dean showed him his badge and the man led them in his house.

I sighed and sat back against the seat again. I decided to pull out my journal and I grabbed a flashlight to start reading it.

We were looking for something crazy fast that most likely inhabited the wilderness. It fed off of humans every 23 years which made it sound like it hibernated or something.

Dean and Sam came out of the house quickly and bypassed the doors and started rummaging through the trunk.

"What did you find out?" I asked as I got out as quickly as I could without stumbling.

"It can unlock doors, it has huge claws, it's corporeal." Sam listed. Dean started loading one of the duffels with weapons. I grabbed my crossbow and put it in so he wouldn't forget.

"So then we know we can kill it at least." I said. Something struck me and I grabbed my journal out of the car.

"We have to convince Haley not to go tomorrow," Sam said. I laughed.

"That's not going to happen." I said, thumbing through my journal. It was getting full and I definitely needed to get a new one soon.

"She lost her brother. She's not going to sit back and wait for him to never come home." Dean said. "We'll go with her and protect her and we'll keep our eyes peeled open for whatever it is that's out there."

"So finding dad's not enough?" Sam asked. I stopped to stare at him. "Now we have to babysit too?"

Dean stared at him like he didn't know who he was.

"What?" Sam asked. I suddenly wasn't so drunk anymore as I stepped in front of him.

"Look, you haven't been with us for the past four or so years, so I guess you don't really understand how these things work." I told him, anger biting through. "When you find a job, you finish the job, especially when people are in danger. You push your own problems aside and you deal with everything that's right in front of you."

"So you don't want to find Dad?" He asked. My fists clenched and I was trying to keep my anger in check.

"Of course we want to find him," I snapped. "But innocent people are going out there tomorrow to find more innocent people and none of them know what's really out there! So we're gonna do what we do best and we're going to help them. We're going to keep doing our jobs until we find your dad."

I turned and saw that Dean was all ready in the car so I brushed past Sam and got into the front seat. Dean reached over and gave my hand a quick squeeze as Sam closed the trunk and got into the backseat.

...

...

**Yay! 2 chapters in one night like I promised! I hope you guys like it and it's not too redundant reading the same stuff from the actual episodes. Please review.**

**-Erin**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

While Dean was driving to the Blackwater Ridge trail, I was in the backseat putting on clothes that wouldn't kill you when you're hiking. Just because they were okay hiking in the wilderness with their street clothes didn't mean I was. I put on my heavy duty jeans and my hiking boots and made sure that I was dressing in layers. I had my journal and a few water bottles and food supplies in my backpack plus my loaded Smith and Wesson with extra bullets.

We pulled up and saw that Haley and her brother, Ben, were already there with their guide. We got out of the car and I swung my backpack over my shoulder at the same awkward moment Sam swung the weapon duffel over his back.

"Got room for three more?" Dean asked as we walked up to them.

"Who are they?" The guide asked.

"Apparently they're all that park service could muster up for a search and rescue party," Haley told him.

"You're rangers?" The guide asked, very skeptical.

"That's right," Dean said.

"You're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?" Haley asked, flirting a little as she had an excuse to check him out. I stood next to Dean and grinned up at her.

"Please, don't let their stupidity give you doubts about us," I told her. I inched a little closer to Dean so that maybe she would get the idea and back off. She looked me over.

"I don't do shorts, anyway," Dean added. I started to walk up the trail following Sam, and Dean followed after me.

"This isn't a joke. These are dangerous backcountries and her brother could seriously be hurt." The guide said. I almost scoffed as Dean and I turned around to look at him.

"Believe me," Dean said, "we know how dangerous it can be."

"We just want to help her find her brother is all," I said.

...

As we hiked I stayed close to Dean who was questioning Roy, the guide, about the types of animals he hunted.

"So has Bambi or Yogi ever fought back?" Dean asked, a little sarcastically. Roy grabbed him by the jacket and pulled him back. Dean looked at him in surprise. "Whatcha doing there, Roy?"

Roy let go of him and then picked up a stick. He poked the spot that Dean had just been about to step in and a bear trap closed it's claws around the stick, breaking it. I grabbed Dean's arm fearfully. That could have easily been his foot.

"Better watch where you're stepping," Roy said, "Ranger."

"It's a bear trap," Dean said, looking at me. He was trying to play off his surprise with humor. I smiled a little back as we kept on walking.

Haley walked ahead of us and stopped us.

"You guys didn't bring any provisions," I scoffed, again. With all the scoffing I was doing I was probably going to end up inhaling a bunch of dust and lose my voice. I brought provisions. It's not my fault Dean and Sam didn't think about these things. "All you brought was a duffle. You guys aren't rangers so who the hell are you?"

Dean sighed and looked at Sam and me before nodding, telling us to go ahead. I raised an eyebrow, not really wanting to leave him alone with her especially when she was so obviously interested in him. Sam grabbed my arm and dragged me after Roy and Ben.

I looked back at Dean and Haley and watched as he told her whatever it is that he was going to tell her.

Five to ten minutes later, Dean caught up with us, now eating out of a giant bag of peanut M&M's. He grinned at me and held the bag out. I smiled and took a few, popping them in my mouth. Haley hiked ahead of us and soon it was Dean and I trailing the pack.

"What did you tell her?" I asked. He shrugged.

"The truth," he said. I rolled my eyes. The truth could have been anything. "That Sam and I were brothers and we were looking for our dad."

"And?" I asked. He smirked.

"That she can't speak a word of us being together otherwise I'd let whatever's out there eat her brother." I smirked back and nudged him.

"That probably wasn't very nice," I said. He shrugged.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't about to tell her you were my sister." He shivered. "She's been giving me looks this whole time."

"Oh, so you _have_ noticed," I said sarcastically.

...

We finally stopped after a few more hours.

"Here we are," Roy said, "Blackwater Ridge."

"What coordinates are we at?" Sam asked. I set my bag down and looked around.

Roy pulled out his satellite reader. "35, -111."

Dean and I glanced at each other and walked over to where Sam was standing. We all looked out into the forest around us and I felt shivers all up and down my spine. I turned to look at Dean.

"Do you hear that?" Dean asked. Sam nodded.

"There's nothing," I said.

"Not even crickets," he added. I glanced up at Dean again and saw a familiar look on his face.

"What is it?" I asked. "Are you getting a bad feeling?"

He sighed and looked down at me before he nodded.

"I'm gonna go take a look around," Roy said. We turned to look at him.

"You shouldn't go off alone," Sam said. Roy smirked at him.

"That's sweet, but I'll be fine." He said, taking off with his gun in hand. I turned back to the boys and shrugged. Oh well, he was kind of an asshole anyway.

Dean addressed the rest of the group. "All right, we should stick together," he said.

I took out one of my water bottles and wiped the sweat off my brow as the others started up again. It was such a shame we couldn't just camp like normal people. It was really beautiful out here. I started walking after them but almost ran straight into Dean.

"Give me your bag," he said, holding out his hand for it. I held it close to me and gave him a look.

"Why?" I asked. He rolled his eyes.

"I feel bad that I haven't offered to carry it for you before," he admitted. "So let me carry it now."

I looked down at my old black JanSport with virtually nothing inside it and shook my head.

"It's seriously not heavy at all," I told him. "You should feel bad about making Sam carry the duffel this whole time."

He didn't say anything and I smirked.

"Oh, so you do feel bad about that, just not bad enough to relieve him of it. But you just want to make yourself look better by being all chivalrous with me and my 5 lb bag." I put it back on with a laugh. "Thanks, but no thanks; you can walk around with the guilt. I'm sure it's heavier than my backpack."

He glared at me as we caught up with the rest of the group.

"Fine, be that way." He said.

"Haley!" Roy called, "over here!"

We all quickly ran over to where Roy was and we stopped in our tracks when we saw what Roy had found. It was her brother's campsite. It was all torn to shreds with blood everywhere. The tent had been ripped apart and all their things were thrown everywhere.

"Tommy!" Haley called. "Tommy!"

I looked on the ground and followed a trail of blood, Dean following me.

Sam shh'd her, telling her that something might still have been out there.

"It dragged their bodies," I said in horror, pointing to the straight trail of blood leading away from the campsite. Dean called Sam over and showed him.

"The tracks vanish right here," he said. "It's weird."

I shook my head and pulled out my journal and flipped to a certain page. I had been running the possibility through my head this whole time but had been hoping that I was wrong.

We walked back to the campsite where Haley had found her brother's phone. I pulled Dean back and showed him the page in my journal. He started to read it, thankfully without humming Scarborough Fair, and he looked up at me with raised eyebrows when he finished.

"Are you sure?" He asked. I nodded.

"Look around," I told him quietly. "This thing is quick and it obviously knows what it's doing."

Dean nodded and helped me put the journal back in my backpack.

"Help!" We heard from far off. My heart leapt in my throat and I really wanted my crossbow from the duffel.

I followed after the others as they all ran after the voice, but the problem was we couldn't really tell where it was coming from.

"Dean," I whispered.

"Everyone back to camp," Sam said, "right now."

When we got there all the packs were gone.

"Dean, Rose," Sam said, "I need to talk to you in private."

We walked off a little ways away and I looked around nervously.

"I'm definitely right," I said. Sam asked for John's journal and started flipping through pages until he found a page that matched the one in mine. Dean nodded.

"You guys are sure?" He asked, again.

"It has to be," I said. "It can imitate human voices."

"And the claws," Sam added. Now I didn't even feel safe with my crossbow.

"I've never heard of a Wendigo this far out west before," Dean said. He sighed and put John's journal away. "Great, our weapons are useless."

"We have to get these people out of here," Sam said, heading back to the others. "Time to pack up and leave. We're getting out of here."

"What?" Haley said.

"Things just got a whole lot more complicated," Sam said. Dean grabbed my hand and I turned to look at him.

"What's going through your mind?" He asked. I took a deep breath.

"I'm thinking about everything we've ever hunted, the Chichevache, the faeries, the demons and spirits and that fucking mermaid." I looked up at him and shook my head. "Those things I feel like I can handle but this…"

"I know," Dean said. We looked over where Sam and Roy were arguing.

"Shit just hit the fan, Dean." I said, looking back at him. "We're in the middle of nowhere and we not only have to watch our own backs while trying to get rid of this thing but we have to worry about the others too."

"You're in no position to be giving orders," Roy snapped at Sam. Dean looked up at them before looking back down at me.

"We have no way to kill that thing," I said. Dean grabbed my shoulders and bent down to eye level, making sure I was looking him in the eyes.

"We can do this, all right." He said. "We need to torch the sucker, and we'll make it happen."

"I was going to bring flares," I said quietly. I was beginning to get nauseous. "But I didn't. I took them out at last minute."

Sam and Roy were now in each other's faces. Sam was about to yell out what we were hunting but Dean pushed them away from each other.

"Just chill out," Dean said. Haley turned to us.

"My brother could still be out there, alive." She said. Dean nodded.

"This thing is a good hunter during the day, but it's an unbelievable hunter at night." Dean said.

"And it's getting dark which means the only thing we can do right now is settle in and protect ourselves." I said. I put my backpack down and started sifting through it. I grabbed my journal and found some Anasazi symbols that we could use to protect ourselves from them

"How?" Haley asked. I ignored her and showed the page to Dean.

"The Wendigo can't cross these," I told him. He nodded and started drawing the symbols in the ground all around our campsite.

We made a small fire and I read everything I had in my journal and John's about the Wendigo. I was trying not to pay attention to Haley who was watching every single move Dean made. I reached down and felt my crossbow at my feet. Even though I knew it wouldn't help it made me feel a little bit better. I also think it made Haley scared of me, which helped a little for other reasons.

"What are those?" She asked about the symbols. Dean told her and Roy laughed at him. I rolled my eyes.

"Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy." Dean said as he finished and brushed the dirt off his knees. He looked over to where Sam was sitting on his own and he went to sit by him. I left them alone, figuring Dean was going to cross the C.F.M. line to ask Sam how he was doing.

"So," Haley said. I turned from the brothers to look at her. "How long have you and Dean been together?"

"For almost four years," I told her. She opened her eyes wide in surprise.

"And Sam doesn't know?" She asked. "I'm guessing that's why Dean didn't want me to say anything about it."

"Sam just recently started traveling with us again." I told her. I sighed and shook my head. "It's really none of your business."

She shrugged. "I know, there's just nothing else to do except for talk."

I ignored her and looked through my journal.

"Are you going to tell him soon?" She asked. I looked up and glared at her.

"Okay, seriously, that's way far into the 'none of your business' zone." I told her. She held her hands up in defense. "Just drop it and try to find your own boyfriend, 'kay?"

Dean and Sam came back over and Dean sat down next to me. He seemed to notice something was wrong. Sam went over to where Ben was sitting to try and see how he was doing. I felt bad for the kid, nobody was really giving him the time of day and here he was stuck in this shit hole of a problem just like us.

"Are you okay?" Dean asked. He rubbed my back gently. I noticed Haley get a little tense and I almost smirked. I looked up at him and shook my head.

"Just a little nervous about how we're going to get ourselves out of this one." I said quietly. He chuckled and nodded.

"Yeah, we've definitely been in some weird situations." I smiled softly.

"We need fire to kill this thing, but besides our little campfire we don't have much." I said. Dean inched a little closer to me and I looked up at Sam. He was still talking to Ben. I turned to Haley and saw her quickly look away.

"We just need to make it through the night and then we'll figure out what we'll do tomorrow. And I also have a bit of lighter fluid." I closed my eyes and rested my head against his shoulder.

"What did you and Sam talk about?" I asked. I knew he wouldn't tell me if it was personal, but just in case it wasn't I still wanted to know.

"I don't think that dad was ever here," He said. I nodded. I had kind of had that feeling in the beginning. "He left us his journal. He never goes anywhere without it and I…"

"You think he wants us to take over the family business," I finished. Dean nodded. I looked up at him, pulling away from his shoulder. "Do you think he's in any sort of trouble?"

Dean exhaled and shook his head. "I really don't know."

"Help!" Everyone sat up and started looking around. "Help me! Help!"

"It's the Wendigo," I said.

"Everyone just stay where they are." Dean said. Roy laughed again.

"Inside the magic circle?" He asked.

"You're really starting to get on my nerves, Roy." I said, glaring at him. He scoffed.

"Likewise, sweetheart," He sneered. Haley walked over to Ben and tried to keep him calm.

"Help!"

Roy started shooting at it and we heard it scream in pain. It was just trying to make us think that we had hurt it, since normal weapons didn't do anything to it.

"I hit it!" Roy yelled. He started to run after it.

"No! Roy, no!" Dean yelled. He quickly turned to Haley, Ben and I. "Don't move!"

Dean and Sam ran after Roy and I took a deep breath, looking around in the trees. I couldn't see anything so I moved back over to the fire. Haley and Ben sat down around it as well and we waited for the others to come back. I didn't want to admit how terrified I was when Dean wasn't around and I just wanted him to come back and make everything okay.

They came back after a while but the Wendigo had already gotten to Roy. I ran to Dean as soon as I saw him and wrapped my arms around him, my heart thumping in my chest.

"Oh, thank god." I said in his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and guided me after Sam back into the protected circle.

"Nobody leaves this area," Dean snapped at Haley and Ben. "Got it?"

...

When the sun finally came up I was nauseous with relief. If that makes any sense. None of us had slept a wink and I knew it was going to take some extreme will power and strength to get rid of this creature.

"These things aren't supposed to be real," Haley said. "They're only supposed to exist in scary movies and ghost stories."

"Well, they are real," I told her. "You'd probably better start paying more attention to ghost stories because I'll bet you 3/4's of them are true."

"How do you know all this?" She asked. Dean and I glanced at each other.

"It's kind of the family business," Dean answered. Haley didn't know what he meant, but she dropped it. People are usually vague for a reason and I'm glad that Haley had finally realized not to pry when we were the ones being vague.

"We stand half a chance in the daylight," Sam said, "and I, for one, want to kill this son of a bitch."

Dean laughed. "Well, you know I'm in."

"So, what is it exactly?" Haley asked.

"A Wendigo," I said. She shook her head, not understanding.

"The Wendigo is an Indian word," Sam said. "It means evil that devours."

"They are centuries old and each one used to be a man. Usually an Indian but sometimes a miner or a hunter." Dean said.

"How does a man turn into that?" Haley asked.

"It's always the same story," I said. "It's a harsh winter and one guy finds himself starving just a little bit more than the next guy. So he becomes a cannibal and eats the next guy and then the rest of their tribe."

"Kind of like the Donner Party." Ben said. I nodded and gave him a small smile. He hadn't spoken much and I felt bad for him. Plus he wasn't as annoying as his sister.

"Lots of different cultures all over the world believe that if you eat human flesh it gives you certain abilities." Sam said. "Like super speed, strength and immortality."

"If you eat enough of it you become less of a human. You're always hungry." Dean said. Haley glanced between us.

"If all of this is true, then how could Tommy still be alive?" She asked. I bit my lip and looked at Sam and Dean.

"You're probably not going to like this." I said. She glared at me.

"Tell me."

"They know how to survive long winters without food. It can hibernate for years, but when it's awake it keeps its victims alive. It feeds off of them whenever it wants." Dean told her. She looked like she was about to be sick to her stomach and I could understand that. I'd feel the same way if I were in her shoes. "The Wendigo is keeping Tommy somewhere dark and hidden."

"So how do we stop it?" She asked.

"Not with any weapons we might have," I said, glancing at our duffel.

"Basically we gotta torch the sucker," Dean said, taking lighter fluid out of his pocket.

...

We found a trail of bloody claw marks on the trees and I was getting a bad feeling about this. Well, I had been having a constant bad feeling since we got here, but the point was that something was definitely not right.

"Guys," Sam pulled Dean and me aside. "These marks, the claw marks are so clear and distinct. They're almost too easy to follow."

We glanced at each other. He was right.

"Rose, stay close to me, okay?" Dean said quietly. I nodded as the trees all around us started to shake. The Wendigo had been following us the whole time. Hailey backed up against a tree and something large fell on top of her. She screamed and pushed it aside. Dean rolled it over and we saw that it was Roy.

"His neck is broken. Run!" Dean yelled, grabbing my hand. Everyone was running in different directions and I looked back to see where Sam was but I tripped and let go of Dean's hand. Someone helped me up and made me keep running.

We finally stopped and I noticed it had been Sam who helped me up. My heart dropped when I only saw Ben with us.

"Where's Dean?" I asked quickly. "Dean!"

"Haley!" Ben yelled.

"Oh my god," I cried. "It got them."

Sam grabbed me by my shoulders.

"They're okay," he looked at Ben to make sure he was listening to him, too. "They're gonna be fine."

I took a deep breath and nodded. We walked back to the last place I had seen Dean before I tripped. A few feet away Sam picked up the lighter fluid that Dean had had. I tried to keep calm, but how the hell was I going to do that when the only real reason I had for living had just been taken by the Wendigo? I looked at Ben and I knew I had to stay calm for him.

"Why did it kill Roy?" Ben asked. Sam and I glanced at each other.

"Honestly," Sam asked. Ben nodded. "Probably because Roy shot at it and pissed it off."

I started looking around for any sign of where they had gone and smiled when I saw brightly colored M&M's on the ground. I bent down and picked it up, looking ahead at the trail.

"Look," I said. Sam grinned as I stood up and put it in his hand.

"Way better than bread crumbs," Sam said. We followed the trail all the way to an abandoned mine. There were warning signs and signs that said 'Keep Out' everywhere but we ignored them as we snuck in quietly. We walked through the entrance to a tunnel and heard growls bouncing off the walls. Sam pressed against the side and I grabbed Ben and followed Sam's lead.

It passed right in front of us and Ben was about to yell out but Sam put his hand on his mouth. The Wendigo walked out of the mine and we all breathed a sigh of relief. We continued walking and I turned to look behind me just in case and I heard a crash. I turned back to Sam and Ben only to find a hole in the ground where they had been standing. I rushed forward and saw them sprawled out on the ground.

"Sam," I called quietly. He lifted his hand and I heard Ben groan. I grabbed the side of the hole and lowered myself down, looking around. My breath hitched in my throat. "Oh god."

I ran forward to Dean, hanging from the ceiling. Haley was next to him. I caressed his face.

"Dean," I said, "Dean wake up, come on. Dammit Winchester, wake the fuck up!"

He groaned and opened his eyes and saw me. "Now that's a sight I like to see."

I smiled and Sam cut them both down. I helped Dean down to the floor, he was in a lot of obvious pain but he tried to play it off.

"I'm fine, I promise."

Haley cursed and walked over to another body that had been hanging from the ceiling. I guessed it was Tommy. She called his name until he opened his eyes and she made Sam cut him down too.

I looked around the room and grinned at our luck. I bent down and grabbed the bag and showed it to Dean.

"Well, look what we have here." Dean said. He held up the flare guns and showed Sam. "I think these will do the trick."

Sam nodded. There were only two guns in the bag and the same amount of flares so Sam and Dean took them. They'd have to be sure that they aimed correctly, otherwise we were screwed. We started to make our way out of the mine when we heard the Wendigo come back. We stopped and Sam, Dean and I all glanced at each other.

"Are you two thinking what I'm thinking?" Dean asked. I sighed and looked at Sam.

"Yeah, I think so," Sam said. Dean nodded and addressed the other three.

"Stay with Sam and Rose," he told them before running off.

"What are you going to do?" Haley asked. I sighed again and shook my head. Dean loved being bait.

"Chow time you freaky bastard!" He yelled, running through the mine away from the entrance. "Bring it on baby! You want some white meat, bitch? I'm right here!"

I laughed.

"Such amazing live bait," I said. Sam nodded and we started trying to find our way out as well. We stayed far from Dean so the Wendigo would keep after him. We hit a dead end and I turned around to start going the other way. I heard it growl behind me and turned around again to see it had cornered the others.

Sam pushed himself in front of the others and raised the flare gun. As soon as he shot the gun, the Wendigo dodged out of the way and the flare grazed against my arm in searing pain.

"Oh my god!" I screamed, falling to my knees and holding my arm. The pain was blinding.

"Holy shit, Rose, are you okay?" Sam ran forward and pulled my hand away, grimacing when he saw. I looked down. Definitely going to be another scar to add to the collection.

"There's gauze in my bag," I said, "just wrap it quickly and let's get out of here."

As soon as Sam started wrapping the gauze around my arm the Wendigo showed up again, hovering over us.

"Shit," I cried.

"Hey!" The Wendigo turned and I saw Dean standing behind it with the flare raised. He shot it and it lit up in flames, burning to the ground. Everyone collectively let out a sigh of relief until Dean saw I was hurt and rushed forward, pushing Sam out of the way.

"What happened?" Dean asked, wrapping the gauze more gently than I had noticed Sam wrapping it. I cringed when he touched the burned skin around it.

"I got grazed by Sam's flare," I said. Dean turned to glare at Sam. "It wasn't his fault, the Wendigo dodged the shot."

...

We had finally made it back to the Ranger's Station and there were ambulances and police already waiting. They immediately started working on Tommy and one of them undressed my wound and fixed it up properly.

While the paramedic, who was really cute by the by, was rubbing an ointment on my burns, Dean stood nearby watching closely to make sure he didn't try anything.

"Are you sure it's okay?" Dean asked me. "You don't need to go to the hospital."

"She probably should, just in case," the paramedic said. Dean glared at him and he quickly shut up and wrapped my arm up with clean gauze.

"I'll be okay," I told him. He nodded and squeezed my hand. Haley came up and asked to speak to Dean in private. He glanced at me before nodding and following her a little ways away.

I watched them like a hawk as Sam came up to me. I wanted to make sure she didn't do anything that she'd regret. I clenched my fist when she kissed him on the cheek and he glanced up at me with wide eyes when she did it too.

She turned around and came over to us, thanking us as well before leaving in the ambulance with her brothers.

"You're all set to go," the paramedic said. I smiled in thanks and hopped off the back of his truck and Dean led me over to the Impala. We sat down on the hood and Sam followed suit soon after.

"I hate camping," Dean said. I laughed.

"I'm not sure that really counted as camping," I said. "There weren't any s'mores or anything."

Dean laughed and nodded. He looked up at Sam. "You know we'll find dad, right?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah… but in the meantime… I'm driving."

I smirked and looked at Dean. He looked like he was kicking himself, yet again, before sighing and tossing him the keys.

"Shotgun!" I called, running to the front seat.

"Oh hell no," Dean said. He ran after me and picked me up, turning me and setting me down so I was standing next to the back seat door instead. I pouted and crossed my arms.

"Slut," I said. He smirked and shrugged before getting into the car.

...

...

**So here's the part where I apologize for taking so freaking long to update and also for not replying to everyone's amazing reviews! I've seriously been slacking lately and I wish I could tell you that I'll update sooner and reply to everyone, but I really can't :( I'm doing the best I can right now, with so much stuff on my plate. **

**I appreciate every single review I get, even the really short ones! They all make me very happy and smile and I honestly reread them when I need the motivation to update for you guys.**

**Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter. You should all leave me some wonderful reviews. Any review that I get today, Sunday, November 7, will get a response from me. I promise! I'll try to update as soon as I can and I'll try to respond to the rest of the reviews I get after today. I love you all, you're awesome!**

**-Erin**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**September 27**

**Outskirts of Wisconsin**

**...**

Dean and I were sitting in a diner looking at a bunch of newspapers for a job to do. Sam had gone to the bathroom and of course our waitress was a total slut.

"Dean," I whined. He glanced at me and saw me picking at my burn. He slapped my hand away. "It hurts."

"Well, it's gonna hurt for a while, woman." He said, going back to the newspapers. I leaned my head on his shoulder.

"It's been a really long time since we've had some time alone," I said, running my finger up and down is arm. "Can we send Sam on a solo investigation for an hour or so?"

Dean chuckled but I could tell he was getting a little sexually frustrated too.

"Maybe we should just tell him," he said. I shrugged.

"I feel bad. I don't want to be all in his face relationship-y when he just lost his girlfriend." I muttered. Dean sighed and nodded.

"Yeah, but I'd be surprised if he didn't already assume that something was up." I saw Sam coming back from the bathroom and I moved away from Dean a little. The waitress came by and bent over the table to clear our dishes, flashing her cleavage to Dean. I rolled my eyes.

"Can I get you anything else?" She asked him. Sam swooped into his seat across from us.

"Just the check," Sam told her briskly. The waitress nodded, a little disappointed, and left.

"What a slut," I said, sipping the ice at the bottom of my drink. Sam laughed.

"You know just because we're always on a hunt it doesn't mean you can't have fun every once in a while," Dean said to Sam, raising his eyebrows in a suggestive manner. Sam scrunched up his nose.

"No thanks," he said. "But you go on ahead. Rose and I can go hang out somewhere if you want to take the waitress to a motel for a little while."

I bristled at the thought of Dean taking the waitress anywhere.

"No," I said. Dean and Sam turned to me. Dean was smirking but Sam just had an eyebrow raised. "She's probably infested with fleas. We don't need Dean to catch anything while we're on a job."

"Right," Sam said, watching me.

"Aw, its okay Rosie. I'm always safe." Dean said. I glared at him and he quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, I think I found us something."

"Oh yeah?" Sam asked.

"Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin; Sophie Carlton, 18, walks into the lake but doesn't walk out. It's the 3rd drowning this year, none of the bodies were found. Her family just had a funeral for her. They buried an empty coffin." Dean said, reading the obituary in the newspaper.

"Wait, they buried an empty coffin? Why would they do that?" Sam asked.

"I don't know," I said, "maybe for some type of closure."

"What closure?" Sam asked. He was getting in one of his moods again. "People don't just disappear, people stop looking for them."

Dean and I glanced at each other.

"There something you want to say?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, our trail for dad is getting colder every day." Sam said.

"What are we supposed to do Sam?" I asked. "We can't exactly put up missing posters for him."

"I don't know," he said.

"Look Sammy, Rose and I have been the ones who have spent the past four years with him. We always checked in, we always made sure we were all right. Most of the time we knew where he was and what he was doing and vice versa. All that time you were off to college, going to pep rallies and taking classes." Dean said. "We're going to find him, but until we do we're gonna kill everything evil that we come across."

"Okay," Sam said, more humble. "Sorry."

Dean put some money down on the table and stood up, looking between Sam and I.

"Something wrong, Rose?" Dean asked when I didn't stand up after him. I shrugged.

"I just didn't think there were pep rallies in college," I told him. He stared at me with the look that clearly told me he thought I was insane talking again.

"Does it matter?" He asked. I bit my lip in thought before scooting my way out of the booth.

"No, I guess not."

...

**Later**

**Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin**

The drive to Lake Manitoc was a very long awkward silence. For most of the time I spent sitting in the backseat, missing any physical contact with Dean. I knew it wasn't a good idea that we were lying to Sam about us being together but I felt horrible about bringing it up now. How would that go?

"Oh, hey Sam. We just wanted to let you know that we've been together basically since you left. We're in love and we know that you just lost your girlfriend but we needed you to know. Now we're going to be all couple-y in front of you. I hope you don't mind."

I'm sure he wouldn't freak out and be all 'Oh my holy shotgun shells, I can't believe you'd betray me by doing the nasty, nasty with my brother for all these years when I was away at college' but I didn't think he'd be all 'Oh my heavenly E.M.F. reader, I'm so deliriously happy that you have become a part of my brother spiritually and sexually that I'm going to plan your shotgun wedding right here, right now'.

Yeah, for some reason I highly doubted that the conversation would play out like that, but those are the things that I end up thinking when I'm sitting alone in the backseat for hours on end. I'm sure Sam wouldn't freak out and it's not like Dean and I acted like a normal couple 24/7 anyway. But, I really missed the simple things like holding his hand or sitting so close to each other that you'd think we were conjoined together. Not to mention I really missed the sex. The mind blowing, toe curling, hot, sweaty sex. We hadn't gotten that physical since before we broke into Sam's apartment at Stanford. But I digress…

We parked right by the lake in front of the house that Sophie Carlton's family lived in.

"Who are we gonna be today?" I asked, leaning up on the front seat between the two. Dean pulled the box out of the glove compartment and started sifting through the badges.

"How about Wildlife Service?" Dean asked. He handed me my badge before grabbing his own. Sam still needed his own set.

We got out of the car and I noticed a man sitting at the end of the dock on the lake. He was just staring out at the water and I wondered if that was Sophie's dad. I followed Dean and Sam up to the house and Dean knocked on the door. A boy who seemed a little younger than I was opened the door.

"I'm Agent Ford," Dean said, "these are my partners, Agents Hamill and Agent Bloom."

He motioned to Sam and me respectively.

"We're from the Wildlife Service. Are you Will Carlton?" I said.

"Yeah," he said. I motioned behind me for him to come outside with us.

"You think we can talk to you for a bit. We'd like to ask some questions about your sister's death." I said. He nodded and we walked closer to the lake.

"Can you tell us what happened?" Sam asked. Will nodded and looked out at the lake. I noticed his dad on the dock behind him. He was still staring at the water.

"She was about 100 yards out," he said, "that's where she got dragged down."

"And you're sure she didn't drown?" Dean asked. Will scoffed lightly.

"She was a varsity swimmer. She grew up on that lake. She was just as safe out there as she was in our own bathtub." He said.

"So there was no splashing? No distress?" Sam asked.

"No, that's what I'm telling you." Will said, sounding a little distressed himself.

"Did you happen to see any shadows in the water? Maybe a dark shape breach the surface?" I asked him.

"No?" He stared at me like I was crazy. "Why? What do you think is out there?"

"We'll let you know as soon as we find out," Dean said, turning to leave. Sam and I stayed put.

"What about your father?" Sam asked. "Maybe he saw something."

"Look, if you don't mind, he didn't see anything and he's been through a lot." Will said.

"We understand," I told him. "We'll keep in touch, thank you for your time. I'm sorry for your loss."

Will nodded and went back inside his house. I turned to look back at his father still staring at the water.

I turned and saw Sam and Dean getting back into the car. I sighed and followed. I had a feeling that Will's father knew a little bit more about what was going on.

"Where to now?" I asked.

"We are going to the sheriff's," Dean said pulling away from the house.

...

"I don't get it, why does the Wildlife Service care about an accidental drowning?" The sheriff asked as soon as we arrived at his office.

"Will said he saw something grab his sister and pull her under," Sam said. The two of us took the seats in front of the sheriff's desk and Dean took his usual place behind my chair. He grabbed the back of my chair and I could feel him brushing his finger lightly against my back. It sent warmth through my body. That had been the most intimate contact we'd had in a while.

"Like what?" The sheriff asked. "There are no indigenous carnivores in the lake. It sure as hell wasn't the Loch Ness Monster."

"Well, that's because this isn't Loch Ness," I muttered. Dean poked my back but the sheriff continued talking as if he hadn't heard me.

"We dragged that entire lake multiple times. We even ran a sonar sweep. There is nothing down there." He said.

"That's weird though," Dean said, leaning forward a little. "I mean, that's the 3rd missing body this year."

"I know. This is my town, my people. These are people I care about." The sheriff sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Anyway, all this won't be a problem much longer."

"And why would that be?" I asked.

"Well, the dam of course," he said.

"Of course, the dam." Dean said. Sam and I glanced at each other. "Sprung a leak."

"It's falling apart," He said, glancing between the three of us. "The feds won't give us the grant to repair it so they've opened the spillway. In another six months or so there won't be much of a lake. Not much of a town either. But since you're Federal Wildlife, you knew that all ready."

"Exactly," Dean said with an almost convincing smile.

We all turned when we heard a knock on the door. A girl who looked a few years older than I did was standing in the doorway.

"Sorry, I can come back later," She said. The sheriff stood and ushered her in.

"Agents, this is my daughter." He said. Dean shook her hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Dean." She smiled at him and wouldn't look away. I stood up and cleared my throat.

"I'm Rose and this is Sam," I said, motioning to him. She smiled at us too.

"I'm Andrea Bar." She said, looking back at Dean. "Hi."

"Hi," Dean replied. I bit my tongue and held back from rolling my eyes. This is what happened when you have an extremely attractive boyfriend. It happens, I knew that, but it didn't mean that I liked it. At all.

"They're from the Wildlife Service about the lake," her dad said. A boy came into the room and walked around Andrea. He shyly looked up at us.

"Hey," Dean said, "What's your name?"

The boy walked away without acknowledging him and I almost laughed. Andrea smiled apologetically and followed after him.

"His name is Lucas," the sheriff said.

"Is he okay?" I asked.

"He's been through a lot. We all have." He sighed before changing the subject. "If there's anything else I can do for you, please let me know."

He started to show us out of his office and I saw Andrea and Lucas waiting outside for her dad.

"Well, now that you mentioned it, could you point us in the direction of a reasonably priced hotel?" Dean asked, looking between the sheriff and Andrea.

"There's the Lakefront motel." She said, directing us where it was, basically right down the street.

"Right," Dean said, looking around. "Would you mind showing us?"

Andrea laughed and I narrowed my eyes at him. The place was within walking distance, so why did he need her to show us?

"You want me to walk you two blocks?" She asked. Dean smiled. I figured he wanted to get information out of her.

"If it's not too much trouble." He said. Andrea glanced between Sam and me and Dean before nodding.

"I'm headed that way anyway." She turned and said something to her dad before turning to Lucas. "We'll go to the park later, okay sweetie?"

"So," Dean said, walking quickly past Sam and me to catch up with Andrea. "Cute kid."

"Thanks," Andrea said, walking as fast as she could it seemed. I crossed my arms and tried not to pout, but Dean's behavior wasn't helping how I was feeling at all.

"Kids are the best, huh?" He asked. Andrea didn't answer him but stopped when we were in front of the motel.

"There you are. Like I said, two blocks," She said.

"Thanks," Sam said. She nodded and turned back to Dean.

"Must be hard with your sense of direction, never being able to find your way to a decent pickup line." She started to walk away and I glared at the back of her head. "Enjoy your stay."

"Kids are the best?" Sam asked skeptically. "You don't even like kids."

I felt a little upset when he said that. Dean and I had been together for this long and it didn't seem like we'd ever have more than driving around and hunting ghosts. Would we ever get married? If he didn't like kids did that mean we wouldn't ever have any? Would we be able to have kids if we were always on the road, anyway? It was hard to be away from Dean for any long period of time so I wouldn't be able to stand raising a kid on my own in one place while Dean dropped by when he had the chance.

I felt a horrible wave of depression and I walked ahead of the two into the motel front desk, hearing Dean's exclaim of loving kids. They continued to nag each other before I heard them follow.

I got us a room and turned to see them standing a few feet away from me so I made my way to our room. As soon as I unlocked the door I plopped face down on one of the beds. Sam left to get our bags and I felt Dean sit down next to me.

"Are you okay?" He asked. I sighed and moved my head to the side so I could speak. I kept my eyes closed.

"I don't appreciate all the flirting with girls," I told him.

"What?" He asked. I opened my eyes and glared at him.

"I know Sam doesn't know we're together, but that doesn't mean I'm invisible and you're suddenly allowed to openly flirt with other women."

"I didn't do it on purpose," he said softly. He sighed and ran his hand through my hair. "I'm sorry."

"I miss you," I said. He frowned and leaned down to kiss me. As soon as his lips were about to reach mine, Sam pushed the door open. I shrieked and rolled away from Dean and onto the floor.

"Uh, you okay?" Sam asked, watching me on the floor. I sat up on my arms a bit.

Tears started to form in my eyes and I felt my throat constrict. I couldn't believe the wave of emotions I was going through but I was going to blame it on my time of the month. I seriously needed to consider taking that birth control where you only have three periods a year. Or maybe I could just have my uterus removed since I wasn't ever going to have kids.

I sniffled as an onslaught of tears erupted and fell down my cheeks and I quickly stood and went to lock myself in the bathroom. I turned on the shower so they wouldn't hear me crying but I had done this so much in the past that I knew they knew what was going on.

"So she still does the bathroom thing?" I heard Sam, confirming my thoughts. There was a knock on the door.

"Rosie?" Dean called. I swore to myself. He probably thought I was upset because of him. Well, I guess I was but not really. I wiped my eyes and cleared my throat.

"I'll be out in a second," I called back.

"What's wrong with her?" Sam asked.

"I really don't have a clue." Dean said, still outside the door. He knocked again. "What's going on with you?"

I sighed and reached forward to unlock the door, hoping he'd get the point. A second later he was slipping through the door and locking it behind him. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me, kissing the top of my head.

"I'm sorry, Rosie." He said quietly so Sam wouldn't hear us. "I didn't know it was that bad."

"I just miss you so much," I said, crying into his chest. His arms tightened around me.

"I know," He whispered. "Are you sure you don't want to just tell Sam? He won't mind. I promise."

"I'm sure," I told him. He nodded and pulled away just a bit so he could look at me.

"Are you sure that's it?" He asked. "There's nothing else bothering you?"

I didn't want to tell him about the marriage/kids thing yet. Probably not ever. It would just scare him away and he'd bring up everything I already knew. I knew this was the most commitment I'd ever get out of him and it was good enough for me. I mean, I'd like to have all that other stuff but I knew it was too unlikely in our lifestyle. And I knew that Dean was worth everything that I couldn't have. At least I thought he was.

I shook my head and tried to smile for him. I knew the smile wasn't very reassuring but he nodded and wiped my eyes for me. He kissed me gently and rested his hands on my hips. I reached up to wrap my arms around his neck.

We jumped apart when there was a knock on the door.

"Are you guys okay in there?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Dean said, clearing his throat. He looked down at me. "You ready to go back out?"

I turned towards the mirror and splashed cool water on my face and used my fingers to brush my hair back into a ponytail. I nodded and we went back out to the room. Sam was sitting on his bed looking at his laptop. He looked up at us as we came out and he smiled softly at me.

"You okay?" He asked. I sniffed and nodded, sitting down on the other bed. Dean sat down near me.

"So there were the three drowning victims this year." Sam said.

"Any before that?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, six more spread out over the past 35 years. None of those bodies were ever recovered either. If there's something out there, it's picking up its pace."

"So what, we got a lake monster on a binge?" Dean asked. Sam licked his lips and sat up a bit.

"This whole lake monster thing bugs me." Sam said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Well, Loch Ness, Lake Champlain – there are hundreds of eyewitness accounts. We've got nothing like that here." Sam said. "Whatever is out there, no one's living to talk about it."

Sam handed Dean and me the laptop. I started scrolling down the page Sam had been on.

"Wait," Dean said and I paused. "Bar, Christopher Bar. Where have I heard that name before?"

"That's Andrea's last name," I said, a little bitterly. Dean rubbed my back and Sam didn't notice. I opened a link on the page near Christopher Bar's name.

"It's Andrea's husband," I said. Sam took the laptop back.

"Christopher Bar," he said, "apparently he took Lucas out swimming. Lucas was on a floating wooden platform when Chris drowned. He was out there for two hours before he got rescued."

Sam looked up at us. I felt so horrible for that boy.

"Maybe we have an eyewitness after all." Sam said.

"No wonder that kid was so freaked out. Watching one of your parents die isn't something you just get over." Dean said. This time I rubbed his back. I knew he was thinking about his mom and I couldn't help but think of my mom either. I hadn't watched her die, technically, but I had been with her as she had been possessed by a demon. I had been with her as her soul slowly died inside of her.

...

We went to the park where I remembered Andrea had told Lucas she'd take him. She was sitting on a bench watching while Lucas colored a few yards away. We approached her.

"Can we join you?" Sam asked.

"I'm here with my son," She said, glancing between us.

"Oh," Dean said nonchalantly, "mind if I say hi?"

He walked over to him and sat down with him. I ignored Sam and Andrea's conversation and just watched Dean with Lucas. I couldn't help when my feelings from earlier resurfaced. I watched when Dean started to color with him and I wondered what he was drawing. He gave the picture he drew to Lucas and stood up. He walked back over to us.

"Lucas hasn't said a word, not even to me." Andrea was saying. "Not since his dad's accident."

"Yeah, we heard." Dean said. "Sorry."

"What did the doctors say?" Sam asked.

"They said it's a kind of post-traumatic stress." She said. I nodded and looked back at Lucas. He was looking at the picture that Dean had drawn.

"That can't be easy, for either of you." Sam said.

"We moved in with my dad. He helps out a lot." She said. "It's just, when I think about what Lucas went through, what he saw,"

"Kids are strong," Dean said. "You'd be surprised what they can deal with."

"He used to have such life. He was hard to keep up with, to tell you the truth." Andrea said, watching Lucas before glancing at us. "Now he just sits there, drawing pictures and playing with his army men."

Lucas walked up to us, holding a picture.

"Hey sweetie," Andrea said. Lucas didn't acknowledge her but he handed Dean the picture he had been holding.

"Thanks Lucas," Dean said, surprised. We all were pretty surprised. Whatever Dean had said to him had worked. It made me have a little hope, knowing that he could connect with that kid when no one else could. Dean was good with kids whether he wanted to admit it or not.

Lucas walked back to the table he had been sitting at and started to color again.

"We'll get out of your hair now," I said, standing up. She nodded and waved as we walked back to the Impala.

Dean showed Sam and me the picture. It was a really good drawing, Lucas had talent. The house he had drawn looked really familiar, I just couldn't place where I had seen it.

We drove back to the motel and Sam left for a while to do some more research or whatever it was that Sam did. For all we knew he could have just been sitting somewhere and thinking to himself about the life he'd left behind. I hoped that wasn't the case, but I didn't really know Sam as well as I used to.

I was sitting on the bed reading about all the accidental deaths in the lake.

"If it is a monster, we need to name it," I said to Dean as he sat down next to me.

"Like Nessie?" He asked.

"Lake Manitoc monster," I said to myself, thinking out loud. "How about Manny?"

Dean chuckled. "Manny sounds perfect."

I closed the laptop and set it aside, turning to face Dean. I kissed him lightly on the lips.

"How are you?" He asked.

"I'm doing all right," I said. "Better than before, anyway. I think I'm just starting my period or something."

Dean nodded.

"I love you, but I'm not going to the store to get you your tampons or whatever," He said. I laughed and shook my head.

"That's okay." I told him. I started to play with his hands in mine. "What did you talk to Lucas about?"

"I just let him know that if he wanted to talk about what he saw that I would believe him" He said as he shrugged. I nodded. I knew there was probably more but I didn't want to push him.

"What did you guys talk to Andrea about?" Dean asked, smirking at me a little.

"Truthfully I wasn't really part of their conversation," I said. "My mind was kind of elsewhere."

He sighed and clasped my hands inside his.

"Look, I know you don't want to hurt Sammy but I think not telling him that we're together is hurting you more." I looked down. He was kind of right. "We should tell him. Soon."

I let out a deep breath and looked back up at him, nodding.

"I'm sorry," I said. He stared at me like I was crazy.

"Why?"

"Because of wanting to keep it a secret." Dean chuckled.

"Just stop," he said. "Seriously. I'm not mad or anything. I understand why you didn't want to tell him and I agreed with you. You just seem to be hurting because of it and I miss you a lot too. I care more about how you're feeling than Sam, no offense to him. But he's not my girlfriend, you are. So it's more of my priority to make sure you're happy."

"Are you sure?" I asked. Dean rolled his eyes and held my face so that I was staring straight at him.

"Look at me," he said, "are you looking?"

I nodded.

"I can't remember the last time I've been more sure." I smiled softly and nodded. He kissed my lips. "I'll leave it up to you to tell him, if you want, but we'll tell him soon okay?"

"You are the queen of CFM's, just so you know." I told him with a small grin. He glared at me and started to say something but Sam came through the door. I went over to my bag and grabbed a water bottle as Sam started talking.

"So I think it's safe to say we can rule out Nessie," He said.

"It's Manny," I told him. He stared at me for a moment.

"Right, whatever." Dean laughed. "Anyway, I just drove past the Carlton house. There was an ambulance there. Will Carlton is dead."

"He drowned?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, in the sink." Sam said.

"Seriously?" I asked. Sam nodded.

"What the hell? So you're right, this isn't a creature." Dean said. "We're dealing with something else."

"But what?" Sam asked. I shook my head and reached back into my backpack and took out my journal.

"It's not a mermaid," I said. Sam stared at me to see if I was joking or not. "I'm serious, that shit was insane."

Dean laughed and I smacked his arm.

"Yeah, go ahead and laugh. But the next time you jump into the ocean after a giant fish I'm not jumping in after you to save you." I told him. Dean stopped laughing and looked at me apologetically.

"Maybe it's a water wraith," Dean said. "Or it could possibly be some kind of demon. Anything that controls water."

"You mean water that comes from the same source," I added. Dean nodded.

"The lake," Sam said. We nodded. "It would explain why it's upping the body count. The lake is draining and it'll be dry in a few months."

"Whatever it is or wants, it definitely knows that it's running out of time," I said.

"And it can get through the pipes. It can get to anyone, almost anywhere. This is gonna happen again soon." Dean said.

"And we know something else for sure," Sam said, sitting down on the other bed. "We know this all has something to do with Bill Carlton."

"Yeah, it took his kids." Dean said, nodding his head.

"And I was asking around. Lucas' dad Chris is Bill Carlton's godson." Sam said. We all glanced at each other and stood up.

"Time to talk to daddy dearest," I said, grabbing my backpack.

...

...

**I know, I know. I totally suck, but I've had some great reasons for not updating in weeks! It's the usual, schoolwork and such, but also! Harry Potter 7 Part 1! I thought it was amazing, but that's usually my opinion for most Harry Potter related things. Thanksgiving was good too, so if you celebrate the day that the Native American's traded all their food, shelter and supplies with the White Man and all they got in return was infested with small pox and other diseases, I hope you had a great one as well. With lots of pie :)**

**Anyway, the end of my semester is coming quickly which means I'll have much more time to write and update if I stop watching shows and movies on Hulu and Netflix Instant Watch. Either way, I know I'll update a lot more often than I have been. Please review! I promise to answer as many as I can!**

**-Erin**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

When we drove to the Carlton household I noticed that Bill Carlton was still sitting on the end of the dock. We got out of the car and walked slowly up to him.

"Mr. Carlton, we'd like to ask you a few questions if you don't mind," Sam said.

"We understand this is a bad time." I said gently.

"We're from the Department," Bill interrupted Dean from continuing.

"I don't care who you're with. I've answered enough questions." He said, still staring out at the lake.

"You're son said he saw something in the lake." Sam said. "What about you?"

"Have you ever seen anything out there?" I asked. "With Sophie's drowning and Will's death, we think there is a connection to you or your family."

"My children are gone. It's," he paused and I could hear the sadness and pain in his voice. "It's worse than dying. Please just go away."

I nodded to the other guys and we left him alone. As we walked away Sam spoke up.

"What do you guys think?" Sam asked.

"Poor guy's been through hell." Dean said. "I also think he's not telling us something."

We stopped in front of the house and something seemed very familiar about it, besides the fact that we had just been here.

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"Maybe Bill's not the only one who knows something." Dean said. He pulled something out of his jacket pocket and I took a look at it. It was the picture that Lucas had drawn him and it was almost an exact replica of the house in front of us.

We found Andrea's father's house and quickly knocked on the door. She answered and asked us what we needed.

"Can I go up to talk to Lucas?" Dean asked as she let us into the house. Andrea shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think it's a good idea.

"I just need to talk to him for a few minutes." He said.

"He won't say anything," she said. "What good's it gonna do?"

"We think more people might get hurt." Sam said.

"There's something out there and we need to stop it." I added. Andrea glanced between the three of us.

"My husband and the others, they just drowned." She said.

"If that's what you really believe then we'll go." Dean said. "But if you think there's even a possibility that something else could be going on here, please let me talk to your son."

She sighed and nodded, motioning for us to follow her. She led us up the stairs and Andrea, Sam and I waited in the doorway to Lucas' room as Dean slowly walked in. Lucas was coloring again.

"Hey Lucas, you remember me?" Dean asked, sitting down next to him. "You know I, uh, I wanted to thank you for that last drawing."

From what I could see Lucas was drawing a person in a body of water. Dean pulled out the picture he had been talking about and unfolded it.

"I wanted to know how you knew to draw this. Did you know something bad was gonna happen?" Dean asked. Lucas kept drawing. Andrea glanced at me and shrugged. I held up my hand to let her know that she should give Dean another moment. "Maybe you could nod yes or no for me."

Lucas didn't and kept coloring. Dean nodded.

"Hey," he said softly. "You're scared. It's okay, I understand. You see, when I was your age, I saw something real bad happen to my mom and I was scared too. I didn't feel like talking, just like you."

Lucas seemed to be listening.

"But you see, my mom… I know she wanted me to be brave." Dean said. I wanted to hold his hand and be there for him. I knew it was hard for him to open up like this, but I knew if he really connected with Lucas that the kid would possibly get better. "I think about that every day and I do my best to be brave. And maybe your dad wants you to be brave too."

Lucas stopped coloring and looked up at Dean. He handed him a picture he had from his pile and Dean smiled. Andrea was staring at the scene with wide eyes.

"Thanks, Lucas." Dean said. He got up and came to us at the doorway. He didn't look at any of us but motioned for us to go back downstairs.

"Thanks for letting them talk," I said at the front door. Andrea nodded and we left the house. We got into the car and Dean showed us the picture that Lucas had given him. There was a church and a house with a boy and his red bicycle in front.

"You think this is an actual place in town?" I asked. Dean nodded and started driving around town, trying to find the place.

"Andrea said the kid never drew like that till his dad died." Dean said as he drove. Sam and I kept a look out.

"There are cases where going through a traumatic experience could make people more sensitive to premonitions or psychic tendencies." Sam said, looking at the picture.

"What if Lucas is tapping into whatever's out there, somehow? I mean it's only a matter of time before somebody else drowns." Dean said. Sam gave him a look that told us that he didn't really think it was possible.

"Well, we don't really have any other leads," I said. Dean nodded and Sam sighed.

"I guess we got another house to find." Sam said.

"The only problem is there's about a thousand yellow two-stories in this county alone." Dean said. I leaned forward to look at the picture over Sam's shoulder.

"What about the church?" I asked.

"I bet there's less than a thousand of those around here." Sam said.

"You two think you're so smart," Dean said sarcastically. I laughed lightly and leaned back in my seat. Sam glanced at Dean.

"You know, what you said about mom…" Sam paused. "You never told me that before."

"It's not a huge deal," Dean said. He glanced at Sam. "Oh god, we're not gonna hug or anything, are we?"

Sam shook his head with a small laugh. I pointed up ahead.

"There it is," I said. Dean and Sam both looked. The church with the two-story yellow house.

We went up and knocked on the door. An older lady opened the door.

"Sorry to be a bother," I said, "but is it possible that a little boy lives here? He might wear a blue ball cap and have a red bicycle."

She shook her head. "No, not for a very long time. Peter's been gone for 35 years now. The police never… I never had any idea what happened. He just disappeared."

She led us into her house and we sat down in her living room.

Sam nudged Dean and I and nodded his head towards something. We glanced where he was motioning and saw little toy soldiers set up on the table.

"Losing him," she shook her head, "it's worse than dying."

I got chills when she repeated the exact words said on the dock.

"Did he disappear from here?" Dean asked. "The house, I mean."

"He was supposed to ride his bike straight home after school but he never showed up." She said. Dean picked up a picture that was on the table near the toy soldiers. There were two boys, one with a red bicycle. He turned the picture over. 'Peter Sweeney and Bill Carlton – 1970'

He put the picture down and I looked back at the lady. I smiled kindly at her.

"We're really very sorry for your loss." I said, standing up. Dean and Sam followed suit and we left the house. "Back to Bill's I guess then."

"You got that right," Dean said. We got back into the car and started to drive back to the lake.

"So this little boy, Peter Sweeney, vanishes and this is all somehow connected to Bill Carlton." Sam said.

"Yeah, Bill sure as hell seems to be hiding something, huh?" Dean said.

"And all of the people he loves are getting punished." I said, shaking my head.

"So what if Bill did something to Peter?" Dean asked.

"You mean if Bill killed him?" Sam asked.

"Peter's spirit would be furious." I said. Dean nodded.

"It'd want revenge." He said, glancing at Sam and then at me through the rearview mirror. "It's possible."

...

We pulled up to Bill's house and we got out of the car. All the lights were off still in the house and I turned to start walking out to the dock. I paused when he wasn't there and Dean bumped into me.

"What are you doing?" He asked. An engine roared and we all looked out on the lake to see Bill going out in the middle on his boat. Sam started to run to the edge of the dock and Dean and I followed after.

"Mr. Carlton! Come back!" Sam yelled.

"Get off the lake!" We all yelled for him to come back. He didn't listen to us and continued to make his way to the middle of the lake. All we could do was watch in horror as the water rose up and capsized the boat. When the boat righted itself, Bill Carlton was not inside it anymore.

We all turned to stare at each other.

"Did that seriously just happen?" I asked. Dean nodded slowly and Sam pulled out his cell phone to call the police. We walked back to Dean's car and waited for someone to show up.

Ten minutes later Andrea's father drove up and parked right behind Dean's car. We told him what happened and he made us follow him back to the police station. We followed him inside.

When we entered his office, Lucas and Andrea were inside. Lucas seemed to be fidgeting horrible.

"Sam, Dean, Rose," She said, watching us come in the door. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"You're on a first-name basis?" He asked his daughter. "What are you doing here?"

She held up a brown paper bag. "I brought you dinner."

He sighed. "I'm sorry, I really don't have the time."

She glanced between the four of us. "I heard about Bill Carlton, is it true? Is something going on with the lake?"

"We don't really know what the truth is right now." Her father told her. "I think it would be better if you and Lucas went home."

Lucas cried and latched surprisingly onto Dean's arm. Dean bent down to eye level with him.

"Hey Lucas, what is it?" He asked.

"Lucas?" Andrea said.

"It's okay, Lucas, it's okay." Dean said. He glanced up at us. Andrea pulled Lucas gently away and led him outside. Andrea's father sighed and sat down in his chair and the three of us sat resumed our spots from the first time we had been in his office.

"Okay, just so I'm clear. You see… something attack Bill's boat, sending Bill, who is a very good swimmer by the way, into the drink, and you never see him again?" He asked. We all nodded.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." Dean said.

"And I'm supposed to believe this, even though I've all ready sonar-swept the entire lake." He said. He stared at us incredulously. "What you're describing is impossible and you're not really Wildlife Service."

We glanced nervously at each other.

"That's right, I checked." He said. "The department's never heard of you three."

"We can explain," I said. He held up his hand.

"Enough, please." He said. I shut my mouth. "The only reason you're breathing free air is because one of Bill's neighbors saw him steering out that boat just before you did."

He looked intently at each of us before continuing.

"The way I see it is, we have two options here." He said. "The first option is I arrest you for impersonating government officials and keep you as witnesses to Bill's disappearance."

"What's the second option?" Dean asked.

"We can chalk this all up to a bad day, you get into your car, you put this town in your rearview mirror and you don't ever darken my doorstep again." I glanced at the boys.

"Door number two?" I asked them

"Door number two sounds good," Sam said.

"That's what I would pick." The sheriff said.

...

We were waiting at a stop light to turn onto the interstate to Milwaukee. Dean was tapping the steering wheel absentmindedly and I couldn't help but think that even though Bill was dead this hunt didn't seem finished. I leaned forward between the two.

"You know that feeling you get when you finish a job?" I asked them. They nodded and I could tell Dean's mind was somewhere else. "I don't really have that feeling."

"Green," Sam said. Dean turned to look at him.

"What?"

"The light's green." Sam said, pointing to the light. Dean nodded and turned the opposite way of the interstate. "Uh, the interstate's the other way."

"I know, but Rosie's right." Dean said. It was too dark so I didn't know where Dean was headed.

"I think it's over," Sam said, glancing behind him at me. I shook my head.

"I'm not so sure," Dean said, agreeing with me.

"If Bill murdered Peter Sweeney and Peter's spirit got its revenge, case closed." Sam said. "the spirit should be at rest."

"Yeah, but what if we leave and it's not done?" I asked.

"Right," Dean said. "What if we missed something? What if more people get hurt?"

"Why would you guys think that?" Sam asked.

"Because Lucas was really scared," Dean said. Sam glanced back at me.

"Is that why you don't think this is over either?" He asked. I shook my head.

"No, but that is a good point." I said. "I just always have this really good feeling after we finish a job and we're driving away but this time the only thing I feel is…"

I shook my head, trying to come up with the word.

"It's just not good," I said finally. "That's the only way I can explain it."

"And I really don't want to leave town till I know that kid's okay." Dean said. Sam stared at him in shock. It was surprising since Dean never really took a special interest in kids. We'd dealt with a lot of children during hunts but he'd never gotten so attached to one.

"Who are you and what have you done with my brother?" Sam asked. Dean rolled his eyes.

"Shut up."

...

We ended up in front of Andrea's house and we quickly got out of the car and headed up to the front door. Something felt really wrong.

"Are you guys sure about this?" Sam asked dragging a bit behind us. "It's pretty late."

Right as Dean pressed the door bell the door swung open. We looked down and saw Lucas panting.

"Lucas?" Dean bent down but Lucas just ran back into his house. I pushed past Sam and Dean and quickly followed him. He started pounding on what I remembered was the bathroom door and I quickly pulled him away as Dean kicked the door in and we saw Andrea being pulled under the water in her bath which had turned an ugly dark brown. I quickly ran in while Lucas attached himself to Dean and I pulled Andrea back up out of the water.

Whatever the hell was pulling her down was way strong but I kept pulling. I had managed to get most of her body out of the tub but her head was stuck under. Sam came up behind me and helped pull her head out finally and Andrea latched herself onto me, coughing out water. Realizing that she was completely naked I shooed Sam out. He left down the hall, Dean and Lucas following him.

I grabbed a towel off the rack by the tub and helped her wrap herself in it.

"Come on," I said, helping her up. "Let's get you a robe or something."

I helped her to her bedroom and she pointed to a long cotton robe hanging on the back of her door. I grabbed it and held it out to her.

"Thanks," she said. I nodded and we made our way into the living room. Lucas was sitting by the window. We sat down on the couches and sat in silence for a moment.

"Can you tell us?" Sam asked. Dean was going through her bookshelves, flipping through notebooks and photo albums. Andrea shook her head.

"No, it doesn't make any sense." She started to cry and she hid her head in her hands. "I'm going crazy."

I sat down next to her and rubbed her back.

"You're not going crazy, trust me." I told her. "You can tell us. We'll believe you."

She looked up at us and nodded.

"I heard… I thought I heard," she shook her head. "There was this voice."

"What did it say?" Sam asked.

"It said 'come play with me'." She said. "What's happening?"

Dean sat down on the couch across from us and opened one of the photo albums. He pointed to a picture of some sort of Boy Scout troop or something.

"Do you recognize the kids in these pictures?" He asked. Andrea looked at him like he was crazy before studying the picture.

"Um, no. I mean, except that's my dad right there," she pointed to one of the boys. "He must have been about 12 in these pictures."

I looked her father and recognized the boy standing next to him.

"Chris Bar's drowning," Dean said to Sam and me and ignoring Andrea for a moment. "The connection wasn't to Bill Carlton. It must have been to the sheriff."

I nodded. The boy next to Andrea's father was Peter Sweeney.

"Bill and the sheriff were both involved with Peter." Sam said, nodding.

"What about Chris?" Andrea asked, glancing between us. "What are you talking about?"

I looked up at Lucas to see how he was doing but he was just staring out the window. Dean followed my gaze.

"Lucas?" He said. Lucas just ignored him. "Lucas, what is it?"

Lucas walked to the front door and walked outside. We all stood up to follow him. He stopped at a random spot on the grass lawn and looked down. He looked back up to Dean. I felt goose-bumps; was Peter Sweeney buried there?

Dean looked up at Andrea, glancing at me beforehand, and I knew he thought the same.

"You and Lucas get back to the house and stay there, okay?" He said. Andrea nodded and pulled Lucas back inside, shutting the door behind them. I looked up at the house and saw Andrea watching through the window. Dean and Sam got the shovels out of the Impala and began to dig.

"You think it's Peter's body?" I asked. Sam's shovel hit something solid and we all glanced at each other. They handed me their shovels and started to dig the rest with their hands. They pulled out a red bicycle.

"It's Peter's bike," I said. I heard a gun cock behind me and turned to see Andrea's father standing there and pointing a gun at us. I slowly backed up until I felt Dean grab my waist tightly. He pulled me closer to him.

"Put the gun down," Sam said.

"How did you know that was there?" He asked, glancing at the bike.

"So what happened?" Dean asked. "You and Bill killed Peter, drowned him in the lake and then buried the bike?"

"You can't bury the truth. Nothing stays buried." I said. I glanced to the front door when Andrea came out, fully clothed now.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about." He said.

"You and Bill killed Peter Sweeney 35 years ago." Dean said angrily. "That's what the hell I'm talking about."

Andrea quickly ran towards us.

"Dad!" She cried. She stopped a few feet away.

"Now you've got a seriously pissed off spirit," Dean said.

"It's all ready tried to take Andrea." I said. "It won't stop until it does."

"And then it's going to take Lucas and everyone you love. It's gonna drown them. And it's gonna drag their bodies God knows where, so you can feel the same pain Peter's mom felt." Sam told him.

"And after that," Dean said, "it's gonna take you. And it's not gonna stop until it does."

"Yeah, and how do you know that?" The sheriff asked, mockingly.

"Because that's what it did to Bill," Sam told him.

"Have you three listened to yourselves? You're insane." He said.

"Well, we don't really give a rat's ass what you think of us." Dean said. "But if there's any way that we're gonna bring this spirit down, we need to find the remains, salt them and burn them into dust."

"So please give us some good news and tell us you buried Peter somewhere." I said. "Please don't tell us you just let him go in the lake."

"Dad, is any of this true?" Andrea asked. I could have sworn I heard a little boy whisper and I looked around to see if maybe Lucas was hiding anywhere.

"No, don't listen to them. They're liars and they're dangerous." He said.

"Something tried to drown me." She said. "Chris died on that lake. Dad, look at me!"

He shifted his glance away from us and slowly to her.

"Tell me you didn't kill anyone," she said tearfully. He looked away. Andrea started to cry. "Oh my God."

"Billy and I were at the lake. Peter was the smallest one. We always bullied him, but this time… it got rough." He said. "We were holding his head under the water and we didn't mean too, but we held him under too long and he drowned. We let the body go and it just sank."

Andrea covered her mouth in shock and I'm sure in horror. He looked at her pleadingly.

"Andrea, we were just kids. We were so scared and it was a mistake." He said. He turned back to us, glaring. "But to say that I have anything to do with these drowning's, with Chris, because of some ghost? That's not rational."

"We need to get all of you away from this lake as far as we can, right now." Dean said. Andrea gasped and was looking out behind all of us. We turned and saw Lucas going down to the lake.

"Lucas!" The sheriff yelled. We all started running to the dock, after Lucas. Dean called his name. He was at the edge of the dock and he bent down to reach his hand in the water.

"Baby! Stay where you are!" Andrea cried. Just as we reached the edge of the lake a hand came up and pulled Lucas in the water. The sheriff stopped running when Lucas fell in and Andrea started to take the jacket she had on off so she could jump in the water after her son. Dean and Sam had all ready jumped in and I stayed above to see if I could see anything.

Sam breached the surface.

"You two stay here," Sam told us. I grabbed Andrea and held her close, nodding.

"No!" She cried, trying to break free. "Lucas!"

"We'll get him!" Sam shouted, diving back under.

It felt like minutes but it had only been seconds that Dean broke the surface of the water. Sam followed shortly after and neither of them had the boy.

"Lucas! Where are you?" Andrea cried.

"Peter!" I turned and saw the sheriff wading into the lake. "Peter, if you can hear me, please, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

"Daddy, no." Andrea shouted.

"Lucas is just a little boy," the sheriff continued. "It's not his fault, it's mine. Please take me."

"Come on! No!" Dean shouted at him. I didn't know what to do.

"Just let it be over!" The sheriff yelled. He was pulled under the water.

"Daddy!" Andrea cried, thrashing against me. "Daddy, no!"

I turned to look at Dean and Sam in horror and they quickly dove back under the water.

"Come on guys," I whispered to myself. Sam swam up but he just shook his head slowly.

"No," Andrea croaked, sliding down in agony to the dock until she was sitting.

"Where's Dean?" I asked, my breath getting stuck in my throat. I was about to jump in after him when he finally reached the surface, with Lucas in his arms.

I quickly rushed forward to the edge of the dock and grabbed him out of Dean's arms, lying him on his back on the ground. I had extreme déjà-vu as I started to perform CPR on the boy from when I had to do the same for Dean.

Lucas's eyes fluttered open and he leaned over to cough up the water from his lungs. I sighed in relief as Andrea cradled the boy to her.

...

"Hey, Rosie, wake up." I groaned and turned over to see Dean standing over me. After everything had happened last night we dropped Andrea and Lucas back at their house and quickly got a room at the motel we had been at before. We definitely needed some sleep before hitting the roads again.

"What time is it?" I asked. He grinned and got on the bed, straddling me. I raised an eyebrow and looked around the room. "Well this is nice."

"Sammy's gone to get breakfast and coffee." He said, wiggling his eyebrows. He leaned down and placed a soft kiss on my lips. His breath was overwhelmingly minty, probably because he just got finished brushing his teeth, and I smiled as he pulled away.

"Is that so?" I asked. He nodded. "So we're gonna tell him, right?"

"Only if you want to," he said, "but I think it would be best in the long run."

"Ooh, look at you. Thinking about the future. That's a first." I said. He mock glared at me.

"Woman, I think about the future all the time." He said, pouting. I raised my eyebrows.

"Besides thinking about dinner during lunch?" I asked sarcastically. Dean huffed.

"Stop making fun of me," he whined. I laughed and linked my hands together with his, intertwining our fingers. I pulled him back down and kissed him.

He pulled away after a moment. He was about to say something but we heard the engine of the Impala indicating that Sam was back. He ducked his head down in disappointment and sighed as he stood up. He helped me out of bed and I went to grab a change of clothes.

...

I brought my duffel bag out from the motel and went to put it in the trunk of the Impala.

"Hey," I looked up and saw Andrea coming over with Lucas. I smiled.

"Hey," I said back. I waved at Lucas.

"Hi," he said. My eyebrows rose in surprise but I smiled even wider.

"Hi, Lucas." Dean and Sam came out of the motel room, talking.

"Sam, Dean," Andrea said. They smiled when they saw the two. "We're glad we caught you guys. We um, we made you lunch for the road. Lucas insisted on making the sandwiches himself."

I just noticed the tray he had been carrying.

"Can I give it to them now?" He asked. Andrea smiled and kissed his forehead, nodding.

"Come on Lucas, let's load this into the car," Dean said. Lucas followed him over to the driver's side of the car and I vaguely heard them talking. I smiled as I watched them together for a moment and I couldn't deny that Dean would make a really good father. I almost laughed to myself when I wondered how he would bond with a little girl but quickly pushed the thought out of my mind and turned back to Andrea and Sam.

"How are you holding up?" Sam asked. Andrea sighed.

"It's just gonna take a long time to sort through everything, you know?" She said. We nodded.

"Andrea, I'm sorry," Sam said. She held up her hand to stop him.

"You saved my son," she turned to me, "You saved my life. I can't ask for more than that. And I don't even know you guys. Dad loved me and he loved Lucas. No matter what he did, I just have to hold on to that."

Dean came back over with Lucas.

"All right, if you're gonna be talking now, this is a very important phrase. Repeat it for me one more time."

"Zeppelin rules!" Lucas exclaimed. We all laughed. That was so fucking adorable. Dean nodded, obviously proud.

"That's right. Up high," he held his hand up for a high five and Lucas immediately slapped his tiny hand against Dean's larger one. "You take care of your mom, okay?"

"All right," Lucas said. Andrea kissed Dean on the cheek and I was about to glare when Lucas pulled on my hand. He motioned for me to move away from them a little bit and I glanced up at the others. Andrea was watching curiously but Dean had a small smile on his face. Lucas pulled me away and I followed. He stopped at a patch of flowers.

I bent down to eye level with him.

"I wanted to thank you for saving my mommy's life." He said quietly. I smiled.

"It was no problem," I said. He wrapped his arms around my neck and I hugged him back. My throat constricted as he pulled away.

"Dean wanted me to tell you something else," Lucas said. I glanced over at Dean who was talking with Andrea and Sam before looking back at Lucas. Lucas bit his lip and looked up as if he was trying to remember what it was. "He said that it doesn't matter what Sam says but he'll always put you first."

"Oh, and," He plucked off one of the flowers and handed it to me.

I didn't know what to say; I was definitely speechless. I hugged Lucas again, not knowing what else to say or do. He grabbed my hand and we made our way back to the others. My heart was doing aerobics and I definitely just wanted to jump Dean right then and there. For being so against C.F.M.'s he sure had a lot of them; at least with me.

Lucas let go of my hand when we reached them and I smiled softly at Dean. He smiled back, ruffling Lucas' hair.

"We'd better get going," Sam said. Andrea hugged each of us again and I smelled the flower that Lucas had picked for me per Dean's instructions as we got into the car.

Andrea and Lucas waved as we drove away and I smiled when I thought about what Lucas had said. Dean was right, it really didn't matter what Sam thought. We shouldn't have to hide our relationship just because Sam's girlfriend had died.

"So where to next?" Sam asked.

"I don't know, but I was thinking" Dean said. I leaned forward and interrupted him from continuing.

"Dean and I are together," I said.

...

...

**Ahh! It's been so long, I'm so sorry! There's no real excuses so I'll just let you guys wait a little bit longer to see how Sam responds :) I know. I'm horrible. I hope you guys still love me, though. I still love you guys! Reviews would be lovely but I know I don't really deserve them. I promise I'll update as soon as possible. **

**-Erin**


	7. Chapter 7

_There is a very important message* at the end of this chapter in the author's note. Please make sure you read._

**Chapter 7**

Sam turned around to stare at me and Dean glanced at me through the rearview mirror with the same small smile on his face he'd had before when I talked to Lucas. "We've been together for over three years now, we love each other and we weren't going to tell you because of everything that happened but I can't keep it in anymore."

Sam raised an eyebrow and looked between the two of us.

"Well?" Dean asked, clearing his throat.

"Well what?" Sam asked.

"You've got to be thinking something." I said quietly. I was waiting for him to ask Dean to stop the car. I'd imagined the whole thing in my head: Sam gets pissed and glares that the both of us and then yells at Dean 'stop the car!' Dean slams on the break and we both watch as Sam throws the car door open and then slams it shut behind him as he stomps away from us. Forever.

Again.

Except, Sam didn't do any of that. He kind of did the exact opposite of that.

Sam started to laugh.

"Did you guys think that I wouldn't approve or something?" He asked between laughs. He snorted. "Please, there has been so much sexual tension between you two since we were in high school. It was really only a matter of time before I knew something was going to happen between you guys."

"That's it?" Dean asked. Apparently he had been expecting something a lot more dramatic as well.

"I mean, I had figured something might have happened when you guys were off on your own all those years. How could it not? You were both known for one-night stands." I pouted and sat back in my seat.

"I'm not a slut," I said. Sam rolled his eyes.

"I didn't say that," he sighed and turned around to look at me with a smile on his face. "I'm happy for you guys, honestly."

"Well, good," Dean said.

"Is that why you play Heart and Journey or Rose's other music?" Sam asked. I laughed.

"No, he does that because he made a deal with me and now he has to play my music when I want. It was totally worth it." I said. Sam nodded, laughing a little too.

"Do I want to know what the deal was?" He asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Dean said bitterly. I rolled my eyes.

"You're such a baby."

"I'm just tired of listening to _Barracuda_ every other day, okay?" He said.

"You secretly love that song and all my music. You never had a problem with it until Sam started traveling with us again." I said. Dean narrowed his eyes and kept his eyes on the road and I smirked but didn't say anything about the small blush creeping up his ears.

"That's not true," he said.

"Uh huh, sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night sweetie," I said.

...

We stopped at a motel somewhere in Illinois when it was too dark and Dean was too tired to keep driving. We got a room and we all slowly shuffled inside. I checked the time on the clock as I dropped down on one of the beds. It wasn't even midnight but we hadn't slept in a while.

Sam set his stuff down on the other bed and Dean fell face first beside me on our bed. He groaned from the feeling of a bed and I smiled softly as I ran my hand through his hair. I heard Sam chuckle and I turned to look at him.

"What?" I asked. He just shook his head with a smile before looking over at us.

"Everything you guys do makes more sense now," he said. I laid back and closed my eyes for a minute before Dean nudged my side.

"You stink." He said. I glared at him.

"Speak for yourself jackass," he smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"Well if we both stink then we should take a shower," he said. I looked over at Sam but he was flipping channels on the television and not paying attention to us. I turned back to Dean. A shower with him sounded amazing and I couldn't deny that everything would be so much better afterwards, if you know what I mean. We had been teasing each other for a while now without being able to go all the way so we were both definitely horny and very high strung. I nodded and he quickly stood up, scooping me in his arms. I laughed and ducked my head closer to his chest before he accidently whacked me against the wall.

"Please not in front of me," Sam whined.

"Don't flatter yourself Sammy," Dean said while carrying me towards the bathroom. "Just because you're pretty doesn't mean you get me in the mood like Rosie does."

"Oh god, just go now, please," he said, completely grossed out. Dean smirked at him and stood in front of the door. I was getting tired of just laying in his arms but I knew Dean could carry me for a while without really getting tired.

"If we're too loud just bang on the door," he said. He set me down on the tile floor and shut the door, locking it quickly before turning back towards me.

He wrapped his arms around my waist and brought me closer to him, pressing our bodies together. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him down before kissing him softly.

"How long has it been?" Dean asked. I could all ready feel his arousal through his jeans.

"Long enough," I muttered, kissing him more passionately.

As we kissed I dropped my hands down his chest and grabbed the bottom of his shirt. I lifted it off of him and threw it to the floor. His lips connected back to mine after he tore my shirt off and he grabbed my hips tightly before lifting me onto the counter. He stood in between my legs and ran one of his hands through my hair. His other hand wrapped itself around my back, holding me close to him.

I reached down and started to unbuckle his jeans. Once I pulled down the zipper I pushed them down and let them fall to the ground. I started playing with him through his boxers and he started kissing down my neck. He lifted me off the counter and pushed me gently against the door. As his hands reached down to unbuckle my own pants I heard the T.V. get louder and I giggled.

"We should start the shower," I whispered. Dean pulled away as my pants fell to the ground and he reached into the shower while his eyes stayed locked on mine. I heard the shower start and steam started to fill the room after a moment. I ran my hands all over his chest and admired his muscles. He started to get goose bumps all over his torso and I smirked, knowing it was because of me.

I slowly and agonizingly removed his boxers and pushed him into the shower. He stood under the stream of hot water and kept his gaze on me. I reached behind me and unclasped the hooks on my bra and let the straps fall from my shoulders. It dropped to the floor and I teasingly hooked my fingers through the bands of my underwear. His excitement was obvious as he watched me and I was surprised that he'd let me take this long to undress.

I bent down as I removed my underwear and gave him a look he could really appreciate before I straightened back up to finally join him. He grabbed my arm and pulled me to him, shutting the curtain closed behind us. He turned us so the hot water was scolding my back and he kissed me hard as his hands roamed all over my body. I gripped his biceps when his hand dipped in between my legs but he didn't keep it there long. I knew he was teasing me now and we'd definitely started a game to see how long we'd each be able to last.

He liked me against the wall and I quickly wrapped my legs around his waist kissing him passionately. I rested my head against his forehead and we stayed like that for a moment. I opened my eyes to see his eyes watching me, curious.

"I love you Dean Winchester," I whispered, a little out of breath. He kissed me softly, panting and out of breath himself.

"I love you Rosemary Bennett."

When we both finished we stayed in the same position, out of breath. We stayed until the water became cold and I got down off of Dean. My legs were a little wobbly so I sat down on the edge of the bathtub and Dean wrapped a towel around me. He kissed the top of my head before wrapping a towel around his waist.

"We have a slight problem," I muttered. Dean raised an eyebrow and I motioned to my naked body. "All our clothes are out there, I don't want to put on dirty clothes."

"I'll go get them," he said, rolling his eyes. He came back soon after and he showed me the pajamas he had picked out for me. It was just a pair of underwear and one of his old t-shirts. I smiled and held the shirt close to me, rubbing my nose in the soft material. It smelled amazingly like Dean and I quickly pulled it on over my head. I slipped my panties on and looked up to see Dean watching me. He all ready had a pair of boxers on and a gray t-shirt.

"Ready for bed?" He asked, holding his hand out. I grabbed it and nodded, turning the light off. The lights were out but the television was still on. Sam was sitting up in bed with his eyes closed, still holding the remote. I slid into Dean's and my bed and looked up at him.

"Do you think he sleeps at all?" I whispered quietly. Dean glanced at Sam as he crawled into bed before shaking his head. He laid on his side and pulled me over to him so my head was resting on his chest. "My hair is wet and cold."

"I guess that's the price I'll have to pay if I wanna sleep like this," Dean said, closing his eyes. I smiled softly and leaned forward to kiss him. I pulled away before resting my head back down on him, closing my eyes as well.

...

**October 4**

I woke up to the door slamming and I groaned as I sat up. Sam was standing by the door with coffee and donuts.

"Mornin' sunshine's," Sam called.

"What time is it?" Dean groaned, glaring at his brother.

"About 5:45," Sam said, setting down the tray and bag. I got up and grabbed one of the coffee's and a maple bar donut. I took a bite out of the donut and sighed in happiness.

"Mmhmm, haven't had a donut in forever," I moaned.

"5:45 in the morning?" Dean asked, still upset over being woken up. Sam nodded.

"Where does the day go?" Dean asked sarcastically. He sat up and watched Sam carefully. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

"Yeah, I got a couple hours," Sam said.

"Liar," Dean said, standing to grab a coffee and donut for himself. He pecked my cheek before turning back to Sam. "I woke up at three and you were watching the George Foreman infomercial."

They continued to bicker and I easily got bored with it. My hair was probably a mess from falling asleep with it wet so I finished my donut and grabbed my duffel and my coffee before going into the bathroom. I didn't bother shutting the door since they weren't really paying the slightest bit of attention to me. I put on a pair of jeans and slipped a bra on from underneath the shirt just in case Sam looked up at me.

I took off Dean's shirt and put on a black camisole before slipping his t-shirt back on. We didn't have a job yet which meant we were probably either just going to hang around here or keep driving until we found something.

I put on a little make-up but didn't bother with anything fancy. I came back out into the main room just as Dean's cell rang. He was holding the knife that he usually kept under his pillow for precaution and Sam was rolling his eyes at him.

"You okay?" I asked him as Dean when out to talk to whoever was on the phone. Sam gave me a look of annoyance. I held up my hands in defense. "Just asking out of curiosity. He was holding his knife out."

"I'm fine," he said tersely. I nodded but didn't believe him, obviously. Dean came back in and I knew from the look on his face that we had a job.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Remember Jerry Panowski?" He asked. I nodded.

"Poltergeist in Pennsylvania, right?" I asked. Dean nodded.

"He wants to talk in person and he needs help." He said.

We quickly packed our things into the Impala and headed out to meet up with Jerry.

...

We met up with Jerry at an airplane hangar and I looked around and watched as men were constructing some of the giant metal monsters. I noticed Dean eyeing the planes wearily and I reached out to clasp our hands together. The poor guy didn't like flying much, or at all really. He smiled softly before giving my hand a squeeze.

"Thanks for making the trip so quick." Jerry said as we followed him to his office. "I ought to be doing you guys a favor, not the other way around."

He looked at Sam. "Dean, Rose and your Dad really helped me out."

"Right, they told me. It was a poltergeist?"

One of the men working on the construction made a comment about the movie "Poltergeist" and Jerry told him to go back to work.

"Damn right, practically tore our house apart." Jerry said to Sam. He looked at us. "If it weren't for you guys I probably wouldn't be alive." He turned back to Sam. "Your dad told me you were in college."

"Yeah, I was." Sam said. "I'm, uh, taking some time off."

"Well, he was proud of you. Talked about you all the time." He said. Dean and I glanced at each other. "I tried to get a hold of him, but I couldn't. How's he doing?"

"He's wrapped up in a job right now," Dean said. Jerry finally noticed our hands together and he smirked. We hadn't been together when we had helped Jerry out.

"I'm glad to see you guys finally together," he said as he led us into his office finally. He motioned for us to sit down and he put a CD into his computer. "You guys should hear this."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Well, it sounded like it was up your alley. Normally, I wouldn't have access to this. It's the cockpit voice recorder for United Britannia Flight 2485, one of ours." He said, playing the CD. It was mostly static and talking as we heard a plane take off and then suddenly there was a hissing noise. It definitely didn't sound normal.

Sam, Dean and I all exchanged glances.

"The plane took off from here and crashed about 200 miles south of here. They're chalking this up to mechanical failure. Somehow the cabin depressurized but nobody knows how. There were over a hundred people on board but only seven got out alive. The pilot, Chuck Lambert was one of 'em. He's a good friend of mine and he's pretty broken up about it. He thinks it's his fault." Jerry said.

"You don't think it was?" Sam asked. Jerry shook his head.

"No, I don't." He said.

"We'll need passenger manifests, a list of survivors," Sam said, listing off.

"Yeah, and is there any way we can take a look at the wreckage?" Dean asked.

"The other stuff isn't a problem but the NTSB has the wreckage locked down in an evidence warehouse. I don't have that kind of clearance." Dean shrugged.

"It's not really a problem," I said.

...

Sam and I sat out in the car while Dean was getting us fake ID's. We needed new ones anyway and Sam didn't have any of his own so now was as good a time to get them. Sam was playing the CD in his laptop to check for EVP and I was on my own laptop researching any legends about plane crashes. I pulled out my cell phone and looked up at Sam.

"I'm gonna make a phone call real quick," I told him, getting out of the car and walking a few feet away so he wouldn't hear. I dialed Jerry's phone and waited for him to answer. I had a feeling that we might end up on a flight whether Dean wanted to or not. I had an idea that would make it slightly easier for us to get on a flight at last minute and to persuade Dean to go too.

"Hello?" Jerry answered.

"Hey Jerry, it's Rose." I paused. "I was wondering if you could manage a huge favor for me."

"Sure, I owe you one, really." He said. I told him what I wanted. "Well, even though I don't really have access to that sort of thing, I do have a few numbers I could call."

"You can get it for me A.S.A.P.?" I asked.

"Absolutely, Rose." He said.

"You're great, Jerry. Thanks," I said. I hung up and went back over to the car just as Dean came out of the store and got back into the car. I followed his lead and resumed my previous seat. Sam looked up at him.

"You were in there forever," he said. Dean grinned and held up our fakes. I grinned as I reached forward to grab mine.

"You can't rush perfection," Dean said. I leaned forward and kissed his cheek.

"Thanks for using a good picture this time," I said. He laughed. He used to pick the worst picture of me. My FBI picture looks like I'm a 40 year old crack whore.

"Homeland Security?" Sam asked skeptically. "That's pretty illegal, even for us."

"It's something new, you know?" Dean said. "People haven't seen it a thousand times."

"And we haven't used it a thousand times." I added. Dean nodded.

"Exactly," he turned to Sam. "So what did you guys get?"

"Well, there's definitely EVP on the cockpit voice recorder," Sam said. "Listen."

He played the audio and you could distinctly hear 'No survivors' crackle through the speakers.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean asked.

"Didn't Jerry say there were seven survivors?" I asked.

"You got me," Sam said.

"So what are we thinking here? A haunted flight?" Dean asked. I sat forward and handed him my laptop, leaning over the seat to point to my screen and all three of us could see it.

"There's a long history of spirits and death omens on planes and ships, like phantom travelers," I said. Dean nodded. "Remember Flight 401?"

"The one that crashed then the airline salvaged some of its parts, put it in other planes and the spirit of the pilot and co-pilots haunted those flights, right?" Dean said. I nodded.

"Maybe it's a similar deal," I said. Dean grabbed the list of the survivors and we all looked through them.

"Which survivor should we talk to first?" Dean asked. Sam pointed to one of the names.

"Third on the list, Max Jaffey," Sam said.

"Why him?"

"Well for one, he's from around here. And two, if anyone saw anything weird, it was him." Sam said.

"What makes you say that?" Dean said. I smiled.

"He was sitting towards the front of the plant. Plus we called his mom and she told us where to find him." I said.

"And that would be where?" Dean asked.

"Riverfront Psychiatric Hospital." Sam said. Dean started the car and gave Sam a look.

"A crazy hospital?" He asked as he drove where Sam directed him to. I shrugged.

"Doesn't mean he's actually crazy," I told him.

"Right, well, Dean and I will see when we get there," Sam said. He turned around to look at me. "If we're gonna eventually try to pass as Homeland Security to see that wreckage we're gonna need to get ourselves some better get-ups. No offense but you guys look like high school kids going to the winter formal with your old suits, and I don't even have one."

"So while you guys are off interrogating a crazy man, I'm buying suits?" I asked. Sam nodded.

"I'll drop you off and we'll pick you up when we finish," Dean said. I pouted and sat back in my seat, crossing my arms.

"I want to interrogate a crazy man," I muttered. Dean rolled his eyes and pulled over in front of a fancy store called Mort's For Style. Dean took out his wallet and handed me one of his many credit cards. I checked the name (Layla Bernard) and got out of the car.

"Hey," Dean called before I shut the door. I bent down to see what he wanted. "Make sure it's something I'll look good in."

I ignored him and shut the door, turning and walking into the store as they drove off. I was greeted in the store by a creepy old man and went to look through all the suits. I knew Dean's size but I'd have to guess Sam's. I pulled out a few suits for them to try on and I went over to the women's section of the store.

I tried on a few skirt suits and settled for a black pinstripe suit with a dark purple blouse. I got the boys some dress shoes and a pair of high heels for me. I aimlessly walked around the store until they finally showed up. They changed into their suits while I paid for them and then I went to go change into my own suit.

I walked out of the store and met up with Dean and Sam who were leaning against the Impala. Dean whistled when he heard my shoes clack on the ground. They were pretty tall so I knew I'd have to be careful while I walked.

"Look at you," he said. I waved him off and brushed the wrinkles off of his suit and fixed his collar.

"So what did you guys find out?" I asked.

"We went to visit the crazy guy who says he saw the guy in the seat behind him open the door on the airplane, which is impossible. The guy also had pitch black eyes. We visited the guy's wife, because he's obviously dead, but the only information she could give us was that he suffered from very bad acid reflux." Sam said.

"Lovely," I said, cringing.

"So now we're on our way to the warehouse with the wreckage." Dean said. He grinned. "I wonder if there's any carnage."

When we got to the warehouse we flashed our ID's to the security guards and they just nodded and let us in. Dean took out the EMF reader and put in my old headphones, holding it out to check for any possible supernatural phenomena.

"What is that?" Sam asked.

"It's an EMF meter," Dean said, "It reads electromagnetic frequencies."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "I know what an EMF meter is but why does yours look like a busted up Walkman?"

I laughed.

"You wanted to know why Dean has to play my music whenever I want, remember?" I said. Sam nodded and I motioned to the meter. "It's because that _is_ a busted up Walkman. It's _my _busted up Walkman."

"I made it myself," Dean said, grinning, obviously proud of his work. The reader started to beep, picking up frequencies. We all looked closer at the emergency door that had been ripped off its hinges. When Dean waved the meter over the handle it started to beep like crazy. There was some sort of substance on the handle.

"What is it?" Sam asked. I pinched some up and brought it close to my nose to smell.

"I think it's sulfur." I said. Sam scraped some off with a knife into a plastic bag and put it in his jacket. I looked over towards the entrance and saw two men in suits showing their ID's to the security guards. "I think we've got company."

Dean nodded and put the EMF meter back in his own jacket and we started to walk calmly out of the back of the warehouse. As soon as Dean pushed open a door an alarm started going off loudly. We didn't even have to look at each other and we started racing out of the warehouse. Dean tore off his jacket as we started coming to a tall fence and he threw it over onto the top so that we could climb over.

While Dean and Sam climbed over I took off my heels and threw them to the other side and climbed it as quickly as I could in my skirt. Maybe the next time I get us suits I should get pants instead of a skirt, just in case. I finally reached the top and dropped down to my feet. Dean had grabbed his jacket and my shoes and we ran to get to the car.

I jumped into the back as Dean started the engine and he skidded off, away from the warehouse. We sat back and all glanced at each other before laughing.

"Oh man," I said, catching my breath, "that was a major adrenaline rush."

..

...

**So, everyone who reviewed had been expecting a much more dramatic response from Sam, but too bad :) This Sam isn't an immature baby... anymore... for now, at least. **

**Look, people, I understand that these chapters have all been cut basically exactly from the show and it's mostly boring, but I'm trying to make it not so boring. For now, if you can stand it, you're going to have to deal with the fact that this is the direction my story is going in. You also have to trust me when I tell you that it will eventually break off from the show. It's just gonna take a few more chapters. Rose will be getting an unexpected guest soon.**

***It has been recently brought to my attention that there is a Supernatural story on this site that has been using not only my ideas, but exact dialogue and scenes from the prequel to this story, Life of a Hunter. I have absolutely no problem with people using ideas they get from my story for their own stories because that's life. I'll even take it as a compliment. There are only 4 unique stories in the world and they just keep getting told over and over, so I don't expect my stories to be genuinely unique from one person's to another's. Especially when all of these stories are based on a television series. I came up with the idea for this story and the prequel by reading other people's stories on this site. But when you steal my work, word for word, without asking my permission or giving me the credit, that is in no way okay with me. For now, I'm going to give this author the benefit of the doubt and believe that it was an honest mistake, because shit happens. I hope that they just needed my words to get their story off on the right start and that from now on what they publish will be 100% their own. I also hope they read this and take the subtle advice I have given them. I'm not a mean person normally but when it comes down to this, I do what I have to do.**


End file.
